What a difference a week can make!
One week ago, only 16 percent of U.S. cotton acres had been planted, with the majority of the activity coming from growers in California, Arizona and Louisiana.
According to the May 11 USDA Crop Progress Report, 30 percent of the crop is now in the ground. That’s a 15 percent jump in one week, and only four percentage points below the five-year average for this date.
Growers in every cotton-producing state took advantage of nearly perfect planting conditions. Eleven states – Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia – reported double-digit increases in planting activity, ranging from 10 percent (Arizona) to 40 percent (Arkansas).
The planting surge now puts the 2014 crop eight percentage points ahead of the 2013 numbers for the same week.
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