Groundwater levels declined an average of 1.32 feet in the 16-county area of the Lubbock-based High Plains Underground Water Conservation District. Recent rains will allow irrigation rest period.
Cotton futures settled with marginal losses Wednesday after slipping from early gains to new intraday lows for the move.
Spot July closed off 10 points to 84.87 cents, a few ticks above the midpoint of its 191-point range from up 80 points at 85.77 to down 111 points at 83.86 cents. The low matched the low of Jan. 15.
December settled off 14 points to 77.72 cents, in the upper third of its 97-point range from up 11 points at 77.97 to down 86 points at 77 cents. It posted its lowest intraday print since Feb. 28.
Volume rose to an estimated 27,300 lots from 25,084 lots the previous session when spreads totaled 8,457 lots or 34%, block trades 1,000 lots, EFP 304 lots and EFS 88 lots. Options volume totaled 5,354 calls and 4,386 puts.
Groundwater levels declined an average decline of 1.32 feet in 2013 in the 16-county area of the Lubbock-based High Plains Underground Water Conservation District.
The decline is 0.55 of a foot less than the drop of 1.87 feet in 2012 during extended drought, according to results just released by the district. The 10-year average decline is 8.83 feet and the five-year average drop is 6.85 feet.
Measurement results will be published in a 76-page magazine-style report. This is a change from previous years when the information was included in a special issue of The Cross Section, the districtΆs monthly newsletter.
The new report will include larger maps showing locations of observation wells in each county along with 11 years of water level data for individual sites, where applicable.
Annual measurements are made from December-March to allow time for water levels to stabilize following the previous seasonΆs groundwater production.
Recent abundant rains across most of the broader High Plains cotton area will enable farmers to rest their irrigation wells for a while.
The irrigated portion of the overall cotton area on the High Plains has declined in recent drought years as producers have concentrated available water on smaller acreages.
Irrigated plantings amounted to 1.8 million acres in 2012, 43% of the regionΆs total seeded cotton area of 4.179 million acres. In 2003, the irrigated portion totaled 54% on total plantings of 3.561 million acres.
Producers have employed a variety of methods to conserve and stretch water resources. A large acreage has been converted to subsurface drip irrigation to achieve higher yields per unit of water pumped.
Futures open interest dipped 153 lots Tuesday to 187,446, with JulyΆs down 1,619 lots to 103,390 and DecemberΆs up 1,025 lots to 73,581. Cert stocks declined 5,318 bales to 422,944. There were 1,459 newly certified bales, 6,777 bales decertified and 5,704 bales awaiting review.
World values as measured by the Cotlook A Index dropped 65 points Wednesday morning to 89.50 cents. The premium to TuesdayΆs July futures settlement widened 69 points to 4.53 cents.
Forward A Index values for 2014-15 fell 130 points to 85.90 cents, widening the discount to the 2013-14 index by 65 points to 3.60 cents and the premium to TuesdayΆs December futures close by 31 points to 8.04 cents.
