The Arizona Agri-Weekly report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service Field Office in Phoenix, Ariz., released April 23, 2012.

Field crops

Cotton planting increased 9 percentage points from the previous week to 47 percent complete, ahead of the five-year average of 43 percent.

Alfalfa conditions remain mostly fair to excellent depending on the location. Harvest has occurred on 80 percent of the growing areas across the state.

Nearly three-quarters of the state’s durum wheat crop has headed.

Vegetable, fruit, and specialty crops

Central Arizona growers shipped broccoli, cabbage, kale greens, and parsley.

Western Arizona growers shipped bok choy, cabbage, kale greens, Boston, green leaf, iceberg, red leaf, romaine, and processed lettuces. Also shipped this week were spinach and Swiss chard.

Insufficient moisture was received to provide any long term benefits. Conditions ranged from very poor to good.

Weather summary

Temperatures were above normal for the week ending April 22, ranging from 3 degrees above normal at Parker to 9 degrees above normal at two weather stations, Grand Canyon and Prescott.

The highest temperature of the week was 107 degrees at Roll. The lowest reading was 23 degrees at Grand Canyon.

Precipitation was recorded in one weather station - 0.01 inches in Winslow.

All stations have below normal precipitation to date in 2012.