Crop Progress Notes for U.S. Cotton – October 15

By Jim Steadman|October 15, 2019

The extended, dry and warm weather conditions across most of the Cotton Belt have now ended. But that didn’t stop the pickers and strippers from running all day (and in some cases, overnight) to get as much of the 2019 cotton crop out of the fields before cooler, wet weather moved in.

The October 15 USDA Crop Progress report (for the week ending October 13) shows that 87% of the U.S. crop has open bolls, with three states dealing with a late crop – Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas – now over 80% boll set and catching up quickly. All cotton producing states are now ahead of their respective 5-year averages for the date.

As expected, the biggest percentage jumps came in cotton harvested, with 32% of the U.S. crop now out of the field. That’s a 7% climb in the past week and 5% ahead of the 5-year average. The report shows that 13 of the 15 cotton producing states gained double digit percentage harvest increases in the past week, ranging from 11% to 21%. Kansas is the only state currently showing no harvest activity.

Crop condition continued its weekly trend of sliding percentage points from category to category. The report showed that 38% of the U.S. crop is rated good/excellent (down 1%), 41% rated fair (down 1%) and 21% rated poor/very poor (up 2%).