Crop Progress: Harvest Up, Crop Condition Down

By Jim Steadman|October 12, 2022

USDA took Columbus Day off, but there’s still a Crop Progress update – just a day off schedule.

Overall, for the week ending Oct. 9,the U.S. crop is still ahead of schedule for the year. Some quick highlights:

Open bolls are now reported in 84% of the U.S. crop – up 7 percentage points in the past week and 3 points ahead of the 5-year average for the date. In all, 13 of the 15 cotton-producing states are now at or ahead of their respective averages.

Harvest jumped 7 percentage points to 29% of the crop now headed to the gin. That’s 4 points ahead of the 5-year average. The biggest harvest gains in the past week came from Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas where dry, warm, open weather is giving growers perfect harvest conditions.

Overall, crop condition continued to sag, with 30% of the crop rated good/excellent, 23% fair, and 47% poor/very poor.