USDA Reports Stabilizing Conditions for Cotton
July 29, 2013 Based on numbers released by USDA for the July 23 crop progress report, overall conditions for the 2013 cotton acres have stabilized over the past week, as the crop continues to mature.
On average, this year’s crop has now equaled the four-year average for squaring and is making significant weekly progress in boll set.
Eighty-nine percent of the crop is now reported as squaring – a 12 percent increase over a week ago and only one percentage point behind the four-year numbers from 2008-2012. Boll set also showed solid progress, jumping 12 percent in the past week (from 27 percent to 39 percent). That’s still 17 percent behind the four-year average for this week, but certainly reflects the lateness of this year’s crop.
The better news may well be overall crop condition, where the numbers have stabilized for the second week and are showing a slight shift back to the fair-to-positive side. Overall, 44 percent of the crop is rated good-to-excellent for the second straight report, with 34 percent of the crop rated fair – up two percent.
Twenty-two percent of the crop is rated poor-to-very poor – down two percent from last week.
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