Crop Progress: Looking Pretty Good in Many Areas

Recent Crop Progress reports have highlighted the overall deterioration of the U.S. cotton crop. To a certain extent, the USDA report for the week ending July 24 shows the same trend, but also encouraging news for certain parts of the Cotton Belt.

Overall, 34% of the crop is rated good/excellent, 36% fair, and 30% poor/very poor. But take a closer look at individual states, and you’ll find strong good/excellent ratings at or above 50% in 11 states – Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. On the flip side, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas continue to show the highest negative ratings.

The recent report also shows that 80% of the U.S. crop is squaring – up 6 percentage points in the past week – and that open bolls can now be found in 48% of the crop – up 17 points in the past week. The squaring total is equal to the 5-year average for this date, while the boll set total is 10 percentage points ahead of the 5-year average.