Wide variability reported in dryland crop development on the Texas Plains. Plants within the same field may range from the cotyledon stage to a month old, agronomist says.

Cotton futures bounced from an early dip to settle on modest gains across the board of eight to 43 points Tuesday.

December edged up 38 points to settle at 67.67 cents, a penny off the low and near the high of its 112-point range from down 62 points at 66.67 to up 50 points at 67.79 cents.

March closed up eight points to 67.27 cents, trading within a 92-point range between 66.58 and 67.50 cents. October posted the largest gain, settling at 68.15 cents.

Volume slowed to an estimated 20,258 lots from 24,089 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 7,974 lots or 33% and EFS 1,000 lots. Options volume increased to 2,349 lots (1,284 calls and 1,065 puts) from 2,018 lots (879 calls and 1,139 puts).

Irrigated cotton is reported generally in good to excellent condition and progressing normally on the Texas High Plains, while the dryland crop is in extremely wide ranges of development. Variability also is evident in some irrigated fields.

Many producers have cotton thatΆs around a month old in the same field with cotyledon stage plants, says Seth Byrd, extension cotton agronomist at Lubbock. This is mostly in fields that were dry-planted.

“While as of now thereΆs nothing that can really be done, or needs to be done, about having cotton at multiple growth stages all in the same field, it may present some challenges at the end of the growing season,” he noted in a report on how to address uneven cotton emergence.

Differences in height across a field may become minimal over the next few months, he said, and it may even be hard to tell where the older and younger plants are when looking at the cotton from the road. Still, he pointed out, the plants that emerged later will always be behind in developing fruit and harvestable boll load.

The easiest way to manage these situations, he said, is to focus on needs of the crop — the earlier or the later emerged plants — that will contribute the most to yield.

If itΆs the older plants that emerged early, harvest-aid treatments may be needed prior to the younger plants maturing and developing all their bolls. Waiting on all the bolls on the younger plants to open could expose most of the harvestable fiber to detrimental effects of weather and lead to yield and quality reductions.

If the field is mostly younger plants that emerged after recent rainfall, managing for earliness will be the key, Byrd noted. Efficient use of irrigation and fertilizer will be critical in a short production environment and to prevent excessive late-season vegetative growth.

In that situation, a long and mild fall will be needed as it likely will be the middle to late August before the plants begin blooming, Byrd said. Heat unit accumulations during the blooming period also will be reduced, so many more days will be required from bloom to open boll.

Favorable late-season weather made a lot of cotton last year, but Byrd pointed out that “historical weather data certainly doesnΆt favor cotton that come out of the ground on June 30.”

Some dryland producers replanted cotton after crop insurance adjustments were made. The uninsured plantings in the Texas Plains are estimated by some sources at 100,000 to 150,000 acres.

Futures open interest dropped 669 lots to 209,788 on Monday, with DecemberΆs down 1,429 lots to 161,428 and MarchΆs up 450 lots to 32,058.

Certified stocks declined 4,240 bales to 101,897. There were 7,415 bales decertified and 3,775 newly certified bales. Awaiting review were 885 bales at Memphis.