Cotton Sees Slight Decline but Outpaces 2024; Peanuts Hold Steady
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released its July crop progress report, offering an updated outlook on the nation’s cotton and peanut crops. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey shared the latest condition ratings and regional highlights during the weekly update.
Cotton Conditions: A Mixed Bag with Regional Challenges
As of late July, 55% of the U.S. cotton crop is rated good to excellent, a slight decrease of 2 percentage points from the previous week. Conversely, the very poor to poor category increased by 1 point to 14%. Despite the week-over-week decline, overall conditions are still ahead of last year, when only 49% of the crop was rated good to excellent and 22% fell in the very poor to poor category.
Certain states are experiencing more pronounced issues:
- Tennessee, which has seen wetter-than-usual weather, reports 23% of its cotton crop in very poor to poor condition.
- Texas, the top cotton-producing state, shows 18% of its crop in poor condition.
However, there’s reason for optimism. Half of Texas’ cotton crop is rated good to excellent, indicating strong yields in large portions of the state despite local trouble spots.
Peanut Crop: Steady Progress with Positive Outlook
The U.S. peanut crop is progressing well. As of July 27, 87% of the crop has reached the pegging stage, a key development benchmark. This figure is two percentage points ahead of the five-year average and two points ahead of last year at the same time.
Crop quality remains stable:
- 68% of the 2025 peanut crop is rated good to excellent
- 5% is rated very poor to poor
These figures represent a slight decline from the previous week but remain consistent with 2024, when the crop was also 68% good to excellent and 6% very poor to poor.
In Georgia, the nation’s leading peanut-producing state, 61% of the crop is rated good to excellent, while 7% is rated very poor to poor—reflecting a mostly positive production outlook.
This update was provided by Dale Sandlin of Southeast AgNet, summarizing key data from the USDA’s July crop report. As the growing season advances, producers and analysts will be monitoring regional weather patterns closely to assess final yields for both commodities.