December posts highest close since Aug. 8. Hard freeze welcomed on the High Plains. Drought expanded in the Southeast and Delta. Record 90-day dry period reported in Alabama. Some Delta gins completed operations.
Cotton futures finished mixed Monday, up 20 to down 44 points, led on the upside by December on this next-to-last trading day before its first notice day.
December closed up 20 points to 73.60 cents, a new high settlement since Aug. 8, and near the high of its tight 60-point range from 73.11 to 73.71 cents.
Most-active March eased three points to finish at 72.29 cents, a few ticks below the midpoint of its 76-point range from up 38 points at 72.70 to down 38 points at 71.94 cents. December 2017 settled down nine points to 70.69 cents.
Volume was estimated at 34,529 lots, compared with 34,460 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 17,424 lots or 51% and EFP 168 lots. Options volume totaled 4,254 calls and 2,714 puts.
Hard freezes over the weekend, with lows of 23 degrees at Lubbock and the middle to high teens in northern areas, will finish defoliating cotton and expedite harvesting across most of the Texas High Plains.
This was the seasonΆs first killing freeze at Lubbock, where the long-term average date is Oct. 31. The low at Lamesa in the southern area was 31 degrees, only a degree below freezing.
A producer in Lynn County adjoining Lubbock County on the south said a beneficial low of 25 degrees and subfreezing temperatures for several hours in his area turned remaining green cotton black and will enable him to begin harvesting fields by late this week that had been treated with harvest-aid chemical on Thursday.
Regrowth following recent rains and warm temperatures had caused problems and growers had still been applying harvest-aid chemicals. Some growers had waited on a hard freeze to prepare plants naturally for once-over stripping.
Morning fog and dew slowed field activities last week, but overall harvesting progressed during drier periods, according to USDA.
Local reports indicated harvesting was around 70% completed in counties south of Lubbock, while about 80% remained on the stalk in the northern area.
The hard freeze will help to save on harvest-aid treatments. Warmer-than-normal temperatures — Lubbock recorded a record high of 88 degrees on Nov. 1, topping the old mark of 85 in 1994 — had stimulated tough regrowth, requiring more applications and adding to costs.
Dryland yields were reported from half a bale to 2-1/4 bales per acre. Irrigated yields ranged from three to five bales an acre. Many fields yielded almost four bales per acre.
Elsewhere, sunny to fair conditions across the lower Southeast allowed harvesting to continue uninterrupted in Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and Georgia, USDAΆs Agricultural Marketing Service said Friday in a weekly cotton review.
Extreme to exceptional drought expanded in Alabama and Georgia. Some weather stations in Alabama reported that this has been the driest 90-day period on record and the longest consecutive days without rain.
Despite brief fieldwork interruptions by rainfall of around a quarter to half an inch in parts of the Upper Southeast, harvesting advanced at a rapid pace in the Carolinas and Virginia.
Harvesting was completed in the Delta except for a few isolated fields. Drought conditions worsened in the north and expanded in the south. A number of gins completed annual operations throughout the region, while larger gains maintained their work schedules.
Cotton in Central Arizona was approximately 50% harvested, sources reported. Producers in CaliforniaΆs San Joaquin Valley shredded stalks and prepared fields for winter plantings.
Futures open interest increased 727 lots Friday to 250,838, with DecemberΆs down 4,182 lots to 10,301 and MarchΆs up 2,690 lots to 177,118. Cert stocks grew 525 lots to 49,658.
