US Cotton Disease Loss Report 2025: Yield Loss Drops to Historic Low of 4.8%

March 20, 2026 US Cotton Report 2025

20 March 2026, Illinois: Cotton diseases can reduce annual yields in the United States. Diseases of importance vary from year to year, and those that affect yield depend on many factors, including environmental conditions, crop production practices, and variety susceptibility to disease.

Plant pathologists representing 17 U.S. cotton-producing states estimated the percent yield losses from cotton diseases for each participating state. These states accounted for a total production of 13.9 million bales (one bale = 480 lbs.) of cotton lint in the United States in 2025 (Figure 1). The yield loss estimates include diseases that impact cotton and are grouped into categories that include root rots, stem diseases, seedling blights, foliar diseases, boll rots, and nematodes. For this summary, cotton diseases were divided into two categories: foliar and boll, or root and stem diseases.

Figure 1. Proportion of 2025 cotton production by state for the 17 U.S. states that participated in this survey. This figure represents 13.9 million bales of cotton lint produced across the U.S., as reported by USDA-NASS.

This publication documents the impact of major diseases on cotton production in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia in 2025. University Extension specialists with cotton pathology responsibilities in these states estimate disease loss data annually. Data collection began in 1952 for the entire U.S., and for individual states in 1965. It is important to note that methods for estimating disease loss may vary by state and/or over time. The estimates may be based on feedback from university Extension and personal experience with disease losses.

Values for cotton disease losses are based on yield beforeestimated losses occurred for each state and are determined using the formula (harvested bales/[{100 – percent estimated disease loss}/100]). Next, the formula ([percent loss/100] x yield before estimated loss) is used to determine the number of bales lost for each participating state.

This publication quantifies yield losses caused only by cotton diseases. It does not account for additional costs associated with disease management, including crop scouting, fungicide/nematicide applications, and product costs, research to improve cotton varieties, or implementation of other management strategies.

2025 Conditions and Production

The United States produced 13.9 million bales of cotton on 9.3 million acres in 2025. Approximately 2.4 million fewer acres were planted to cotton in 2025 compared to the annual average acreage planted from 2020 to 2024. The number of bales harvested in 2025 was 697.7 thousand, less than the average annual number harvested from 2020 to 2024.

In general, temperatures across many cotton-growing states were slightly above normal from May 1 through September 30, 2025 (Figure 2). Portions of Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Texas were below normal. Precipitation was well above normal across multiple cotton-growing states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia (Figure 3). Precipitation was below normal in Florida and across southern Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Texas, as well as in portions of Arizona and California. Much of Missouri was also drier than normal; however, most of the cotton is produced in the Missouri Bootheel.

Figure 2. Average temperature departure from normal from 1 May through 30 September 2025 across U.S. states.

Figure 3. Precipitation departure from normal from 1 May through 30 September 2025 across U.S. states.

2025 National Disease Loss

In 2025, disease reduced cotton yield by an estimated 4.8 percent, or 702,244 bales. Across the U.S., the percent yield reduction in 2025 was the lowest ever recorded, since data collection for individual states began in 1965. The average percent loss from 1964 through 2024 was 11.6 percent. Fewer bales were estimated to have been lost due to disease in 2025 than in any other year except 1983. The top yield-reducing disease or disease group in 2025 across U.S. cotton-producing states was root-knot nematode, followed by reniform nematode, seedling diseases, Stemphylium leaf spot, and other nematodes, respectively (Table 1 and Figure 4). Compared to the top five yield-reducing diseases or disease groups, other diseases had much lower yield impacts, although they are still important yield-limiting cotton diseases.

Table 1. Estimated cotton yield losses (number of bales) due to diseases in 17 U.S. cotton-producing states in the 2025 growing season.

Disease		Total losses (480 lb. bales)
Foliar and boll
Stemphylium leaf spot	Stemphylium solani	41,393
Alternaria leaf spot	Alternaria macrospora	11,806
Boll rots	Rhizopus and others	6,250
Bacterial blight	Xanthomonas citri pv. malvacearum	5,596
Target spot	Corynespora cassiicola	2,941
Areolate mildew	Ramulariopsis gossypii and R. pseudoglycines	2,173
Ascochyta blight	Nothophoma gossypiicola	1,757
Cercospora leaf spot	Cercospora gossypina	1,516
Viruses	CLRDV and others	56
Root and stem
Root-knot nematodes1	Meloidogyne spp.	280,269
Reniform nematode	Rotylenchulus reniformis	169,080
Seedling diseases	Rhizoctonia and others	91,476
Other nematodes2	Belonolaimus and Hoplolaimus	31,746
Root rot	Phymatotrichopsis omnivora	22,088
Fusarium wilt	Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. vasinfectum	20,212
Verticillium wilt	Verticillium dahliae	13,563
Other diseases3	—	321

Figure 4. Proportion of 2025 cotton bales lost for the most problematic diseases across the 17 U.S. states that participated in this survey. This figure represents the loss of 702,244 bales of cotton. The “others” category includes cumulative losses from all diseases that are not represented individually in this figure.

Diseases in the Southwestern United States

The states reporting data from the southwestern cotton-growing region accounted for 46.4 percent of U.S. cotton production. Root-knot nematodes caused the greatest yield reduction in the southwestern U.S. in 2025, with 95,801 bales lost (Table 2). Reniform nematode caused the second greatest yield losses, followed by seedling diseases, root rot, and Fusarium wilt(Figure 5). As in the previous three years, all five of the most significant diseases in this region were root and stem diseases. Overall, the yield reduction caused by disease in this region was 3.6 percent.

Table 2. Estimated cotton yield losses due to the five most significant diseases in the southwestern U.S. states1 in 2025.

Rank		Disease	Total losses (bales)
Southwestern Region	Nation	Disease	Total losses (bales)
1	1	Root-knot nematodes	95,801
2	2	Reniform nematode	54,856
3	3	Seedling diseases	22,230
4	6	Root rot	22,088
5	7	Fusarium wilt	16,727

Figure 5. Fusarium wilt was estimated to have reduced lint yield by 16,727 bales in the Southwestern U.S. in 2025.

Diseases in the Southeastern United States

The states reporting data from the southeastern cotton-growing region accounted for 53.6 percent of U.S. cotton production. Root-knot nematodes were the greatest cause of yield reduction, followed by reniform nematode, seedling diseases, Stemphylium leaf spot, and other nematodes (Table 3). Due to the climate of southeastern U.S. states, foliar diseases are generally more likely to pose problems than in drier southwestern states. Diseases reduced yield by an estimated 5.8 percent in the southeastern states.

Table 3. Estimated cotton yield losses due to the five most significant diseases in the southeastern U.S. states1 in 2025.

Rank		Disease	Total losses (bales)
Southeastern	Nation	Disease	Total losses (bales)
1	1	Root-knot nematodes	184,469
2	2	Reniform nematode	114,224
3	3	Seedling diseases	69,246
4	4	Stemphylium leaf spot	41,393
5	5	Other nematodes	30,274

Summary

Estimated percent losses in 2025 (4.8%) were much lower than the 60-year average from 1965 through 2024 (11.6%). Estimated bales lost to disease were also much lower in 2025 (702,244) than the 60-year average (1,952,398). This does not mean that losses in individual fields were negligible, as disease risk varies across fields, regions, and production conditions.

The development of cotton disease depends on the presence of a susceptible host, the right environment, and the disease-causing organism. One of the best ways to reduce disease risk is to plant cotton cultivars that are less susceptible to diseases. A guide that compiles a list of commercially available cotton cultivars with documented resistance or tolerance to root-knot and reniform nematodes (the two greatest causes of cotton yield reduction) is available at Selecting Cotton Cultivars with Nematode Resistance and Tolerance. There are now cotton cultivars with resistance to the southern root-knot nematode and reniform nematode. However, some cultivars are resistant to only one nematode species. This guide should help select the right resistant cultivar for specific nematode species in the field.

Disclaimer

The disease loss estimates in this publication were provided by University Extension with cotton pathology responsibilities. This information is only a guide. The values in this publication are not intended to be exact values of cotton yield losses due to diseases. Participants used the means they considered best to estimate disease losses and assume no liability for them.

Values reported in this document were accurate as of the publication date and do not reflect corrections or updates occurring since that time. For the most up-to-date values and additional information on yield and economic losses due to diseases, see the Field Crop Disease and Insect Loss Calculator.