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Trouble is deepening for the Texas cotton crop, which was worth about a billion and a half dollars last year.
USDA data released Monday shows 44 percent of the crop is now in poor or very poor shape, worsening five percentage points in just a week. Texas is expected to produce about a third of all American cotton this year, giving the state decline national impact.
Federal forecasts project statewide production will drop nearly 12 percent from last year, causing new economic strain just as growers enter the critical harvest stretch.
