Open Bolls Appearing in U.S. Cotton Crop

By Jim.Robinson|August 19, 2013

The U.S. cotton crop held its own over the past week, with reports of open bolls in many areas and little-to-no change in crop conditions.

According to the USDA Crop Conditions Report dated August 18, boll set is now essentially equal to the four-year average for the 15 major cotton producing states, with open bolls now reported across eight percent of the nation’s crop. That’s six percent behind the four-year average, but projected hot and dry conditions throughout the Cotton Belt should help bump those numbers over the coming week.

Crop conditions remained relatively flat, with 77 percent of the crop rated good-to-very good, 31 percent rated fair, and 23 percent rated poor-to-very poor.

Last week, USDA released the August cotton production and supply/demand estimate for the 2013 crop. This latest estimate pegged production at 13.05 million bales – down nearly 500,000 bales from the July numbers. Exports were also lowered, primarily due to the potentially smaller crop and tight supply numbers.

Overall, yield predictions for the U.S. dropped to an average of 813 pounds per acre. Abandonment rate, on average, is now projected at 24.5 percent, with Texas estimated to lose 42 percent of its cotton acres.