August 3, 2000

TIMELY RAINS BENEFIT THE COTTON CROP IN MEXICO

Mexico cotton appears to have passed an important milestone of the 2000 summer growing season in good condition. Fields received enough rainfall to offset temperatures that sometimes reached above-normal levels, easing the requirements on reservoirs and allowing plants to continue development. Peak water uptake for cotton plants is during the bloom stage, and most of the cotton fields are already well into or beyond this critical crop stage.

The major cotton producing states are Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Sonora, all of which are in the northernmost region of the country where irrigation is the norm. The storage levels of reservoirs in that region have been declining in recent years as tropical storms have not been a dependable replenishing factor. It was vital that sufficient precipitation fall on the cotton fields this summer as reservoir supplies remained uncertain. Although the volume of water was not great in most cases, what rain did fall served the cotton fields well as it arrived at an ideal time.

Mexicali and Baja California typically receive very little precipitation in June, and rainfall during that period this year was below normal. However light showers did come in late June and early July, just as many cotton plants in Mexicali were entering the bloom stage. Hermosillo fields in west central Sonora had the same good fortune. Central Chihuahua plants benefited from light early-June and -July showers, while southwest Coahuila's Torreon fields have experienced at least one measurable rainfall event each month since May. North Tamaulipas state has been largely dry in the cotton producing regions since around June10, so the fields have been progressing on residual moisture and supplemental irrigation.

For more information, contact Ron White with the Production Estimates and Crop Assessment Division on (202) 720-0888 or by e-mail at WhiteR@fas.usda.gov.