By Associated Press
Lubbock, TX – Dry parts of the mid-South and Southeast have led to a drop of one-point-three (m) million bales in the nation's cotton production from last month.
Projections were released this week by the U-S Department of Agriculture.
Lack of moisture in the Tennessee Valley region of Georgia and Alabama is responsible for most of the reduction.
Meanwhile, parts of Oklahoma and Texas -- the nation's leading producer of cotton -- are too wet.
June's production estimates had U-S yields at 820 pounds per acre. The new projections are 20 pounds less per acre.
The report predicts the nation will produce 17 and a-half (m) million bales in 2007, or a drop of 19 percent from last year.
The 2006 figure was 21-point-six (m) million bales.
Planting was delayed in some parts of the Texas, which is coming off back-to-back drought years.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)