NEW YORK, March 25 (Reuters) - U.S. cotton futures closed
lower Friday on investor profit-taking and players began
looking toward release of a key government plantings report
toward the end of next week, analysts said.

The key May cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
dropped 4.33 cents to end at $2.0449 per lb, dealing from
$2.0263 to $2.1116. On the week, the market is up 2.7 percent.

The market faltered when it tried to push its way beyond
$2.10 and maybe $2.15, basis the key May contract, said Mike
Stevens, an independent cotton analyst in Louisiana.

'It ran into technical resistance is has been plagued with
all week,' he said. 'It's Friday and so it's time to bank the
profits for the week.'

Volume traded stood at about 16,000 lots, 40 percent below
the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.

The level of investor interest in the market hit its
highest level in a month as it stood at 177,933 lots as of
March 24, the highest since Feb. 23, ICE Futures U.S. data
showed.

The market is still fretting about the drought-like
conditions afflicting Texas, the top cotton-growing state in
the country.

But attention next week will be dominated by a report on
March 31 from the U.S. Agriculture Department on potential
plantings for crops such as cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat
among others.

The USDA report is the first government survey of likely
plantings for major row crops in 2011. Despite the rally in
cotton to record highs, the fiber has to compete hard for
acreage against similarly high-priced grains this year.

Analytical firm Informa Economics projected on Friday U.S.
farmers will plant 13.13 million acres to cotton , a level
that would be the highest in five years.