The latest Arizona agriculture update from the National Agricultural Statistics Service’s Phoenix, Ariz., field office:

• Field crops

The opening of bolls has occurred on 98 percent of Arizona’s cotton acreage, behind last year’s 100 percent and the five-year average of 100 percent. Cotton conditions are fair to excellent depending on the location.

Alfalfa harvest remains active on over three-quarters of Arizona’s acreage. Alfalfa conditions range from poor to good. Range and pasture conditions vary from mostly very poor to fair depending on the location.

• Vegetables, fruit, and specialty crops

Arizona growers shipped miscellaneous melons this week.

• Weather summary

Temperatures were mostly above normal across Arizona for the week ending Oct. 18, ranging from 2 degrees below normal at Parker to 8 degrees above normal at Douglas and Willcox.

The highest temperature was 102 degrees at five locations, and the lowest reading of 25 degrees occurred at Grand Canyon.

Precipitation was reported at 3 of the 22 stations. Yuma received .02 inches and Willcox received .60 inches of precipitation. Yuma is the only reporting station with above normal precipitation to date.