NEW YORK, Sept 25: Texas cotton producers can expect an above-average crop this year and of much better quality, according to reports from Texas Cooperative Extension agents.

The crop is made. Short of a weather disaster, such as a hurricane or flooding, the crop in Texas should approximate 4.8 million (480-lb) bales, up from last year’s 4.3 million bales, Jose Pena, an extension economist in Uvalde, said in a report released Tuesday by the Texas A&M University Agriculture Program.

Texas is the top cotton producing state in the United States, and the country is expected to harvest an estimated 18.13 million bales this season. The South Plains region around Lubbock produces 80 percent of the cotton grown in Texas.

Pena said this year’s Texas cotton crop is making excellent progress. About 65 per cent of the crop is rated normal and on schedule, compared to 47 per cent at the same time last year.

A total of 5.8 million acres were sown to cotton in the state in 2002, down slightly from last year’s 6.0 million acres.

Carl Anderson, extension economist in College Station, said even though Texas lost 1.2 million of the planted acres to dry weather and hail storms, 4.6 million acres of cotton are expected to be harvested.

Pena said that is an 8.25 per cent increase from last year’s 4.2 million acres.

South Texas lost about half the crop to drought, Anderson said. The harvest is progressing well in the Coastal Bend region and Brazos Valley.

The harvest is in full swing in the region south of Austin, Pena said. The crop is at various stages of maturity from Austin to Lubbock.

Anderson said the South Plains needs one more month of dry, sunny weather to mature to full potential and six more weeks for harvest. Ideally, harvest should be finished by Thanksgiving in late November.

Pena said yields are estimated at an average of 501 lbs per acre, which is a 20 lb increase from an average of 481 lbs per acre.

Rains in early September were very beneficial for fall and winter production in South-Central Texas, he said.

On the other hand, the rains caught the southwest Winter Garden region in the middle of harvesting a very good cotton crop and delayed the harvest, and will cause some grade and yield degradation damage. After a relatively dry spring, mid-summer rains in the High Plains provided an excellent weather environment for cotton production. Last year’s severe drought had a very adverse effect on average yields and acres harvested, Pena added.

Anderson said the current dry weather has been ideal for harvesting. Plant diseases and insects have done little damage this year, he added.— Reuters