Cotton: rain delays California's Pima planting

Cold, wet weather continues to stall cotton planting in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The University of California’s Cotton Planting Forecast page has been mainly predicted unfavorable planting conditions for the last three weeks, and the forecast for the next five days doesn’t look at better. With more of the state’s acreage shifting to Pima, delays like this could become critical after April 1, since Pima takes longer to mature. Generally, the goal is to plant Pima before mid-April. Dale Deshane, a PCA in Bakersfield, told us last week that one of his growers intended to trade Pima seed for Acala varieties on anything planted after April 12. Other growers would likely push Pima planting dates into the third week of April.

Peanuts: rain, cool weather slowing Argentina crop

Heavy rains and cooler weather are having an effect on Argentina’s peanut crop, Andres H. "Hari" Georgalos with Georgalos Peanut World reported today. “The rain registrations were heavy and helped to maintain the soil almost saturated, with high and permanent humidity on the top soil,” Georgalos said in an email brief. “The temperatures started to be like in Autumn. These climatic conditions are having an influence on the maturation processes of the peanut kernels and also on the evolution of some diseases. The decrease of the temperatures’ average started to delay the maturation processes.”

Catfish imports double from year-ago period

Foreign competition in the catfish market continues. Importation of freshwater processed fish almost doubled in January compared to the year-ago total, the USDA reported. Frozen, boneless poundage of Ictalurus, Pangasius and Siluriformes catfish fillets for January 2006 totaled 2.64 million pounds. Just over half of that was from Vietnam, with the remainder coming from China, Malaysia and Thailand. The Ictalurus (channel catfish) imports totaled 415 thousand pounds. U.S. farm-raised catfish processed during February 2006 totaled 49.1 million pounds round weight, down 5% from February 2005. Average price paid to producers was 72.9 cents per pound for February 2006, up 0.3 cent from last month but 0.2 cent below a year ago.