In this week’s report, USDA left the national corn condition rating unchanged at 52 percent in the combined good to excellent categories. However, in the I-80 Corridor, Ohio improved by four points and Indiana went up by three. Nebraska and Iowa both declined by three points. Interestingly, outside the Corridor where harvest is less than half done, Pennsylvania picked up 11 points while Colorado and North Dakota improved by six.
Corn harvest nationwide is now 20 percent complete - two points behind its five-year average. In the I-80 Corridor, Nebraska leads with 24 percent of its crop already out of the field. Indiana is 16 percent complete. Among all of the key producing states, North Carolina reports that they are already 81 percent done and Texas is close behind with 80 percent.
The national soybean condition rating also held steady this week to remain at 55 percent good to excellent. In the I-80 Corridor, Ohio and Indiana both improved by three points. On the other end of the Corridor, Nebraska showed a six point decline in its rating. Outside the Corridor, Kentucky had an 11 point improvement and Michigan gained 10 points while Arkansas added nine.
The national soybean harvest has reached 22 percent completion versus the 25 percent average pace. In the I-80 Corridor, Nebraska leads the way with 29 percent completed and Iowa has 26 percent cut. In the other key producing states, Louisiana leads the nation overall with 77 percent of its crop harvested.
Cotton condition nationwide didn’t budge - holding at 31 percent good to excellent. In the top five producing states, Mississippi showed a six point improvement in condition while Alabama improved by four. Meanwhile, Texas dropped two points and North Carolina edged one point lower.
Cotton harvest is now up to 22 percent complete nationwide which now puts it five points ahead of its five-year average. The largest producing state of Texas moved up to 31 percent completion - EIGHT points ahead of its average pace. Mississippi reported the second fastest harvest progress with 28 percent of its acreage now out of the field - seven points ahead of its average.
Grain sorghum (milo) condition nationwide had a two percentage point decline in the good to excellent rating - meaning only 20 percent of the nation’s crop meets that criteria. In the Plains, continuing drought keeps taking a toll on the crop even as harvest ramps up. Colorado’s condition came down by four points, Nebraska and South Dakota both declined by three, and Kansas slid lower by two.
Grain sorghum harvest is up to 34 percent nationwide - only one point behind its five-year average. The number one producing state of Texas is nearly finished as it reports 91 percent of its crop is in the bin. Oklahoma is getting a good start with 20 percent cut, but that is still significantly behind its five-year average of 27 percent.
Rice harvest nationwide moved up to 70 percent completion as of Sunday. Texas is basically done with 96 percent of its harvest complete. Louisiana has finished cutting on 94 percent of its acres.
Peanut condition nationwide went down by three points to 65 percent good to excellent, but that was mainly due to the extreme effects to Florida’s crop from Hurricane Ian. Florida’s crop rating declined by 13 points last week with the passage of Ian. Fortunately, Florida farmers were able to get nearly half of their crop out of the field before the storm made landfall. Georgia saw a two percentage point decline, but Alabama improved by three points on the acreage that it has left.
Peanut harvest came in at 28 percent complete across the nation as of Sunday. That is five points ahead of the five-year average. Thankfully, Florida reported that 48 percent of its peanuts had been harvested. However, that means half of the crop was still out in the field when Ian hit. It remains to be seen how much of the remaining crop can be salvaged after the catastrophic flooding. The biggest producing state of Georgia showed that it had completed harvest on 30 percent of its acres.
Winter wheat planting moved up to 40 percent completion compared to its five-year average of 44 percent. Extreme drought in many portions of the Plains is hampering planting conditions due to no available moisture to germinate the seed. South Dakota leads the Plains states with 69 percent of its crop in the ground. Nebraska is close behind with 65 percent.
Pasture conditions continue to deteriorate in most of the Plains with both Kansas and Nebraska dropping another four percentage points from their good to excellent ratings. That means Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska ALL have ratings in only the single digits. Even Texas which received a big boost a month ago from a heavy rain event went backwards once again by two points. Wyoming reported a huge nine percent decline, but in a weird twist, neighboring Colorado had a 10 point improvement. The northern Plains states of North and South Dakota reported five and three point improvements respectively.
In the topsoil moisture deficit category (generally considered to measure the top four inches of soil representing the seed planting and sprouting zone), Oklahoma has overtaken Montana at the top spot with 92 percent of its acreage classified as short to very short on moisture. Montana benefitted from an eight point improvement to end up in second place this week at 87 percent. Kansas made the biggest move as it expanded its short to very short rating by 10 points to now stand at 86 percent - putting it in a tie for third place with Arkansas.
In the subsoil moisture deficit category (considered to measure deep soil moisture down to a few feet where the crop roots would extend downward), Oklahoma zoomed into the top spot with 95 percent of its acres in the dreaded short to very short categories. Montana moves down to second place with a six point improvement over the past week. Just as in the topsoil segment, Kansas moves into the third spot with 88 percent of its acreage rated short to very short.
USDA Crop Progress 221003.pdf
