WINTER WHEAT
— Harvest progress: Harvest maintained a steady pace last week, moving ahead 14 percentage points to reach 54% complete nationwide as of Sunday. That was 21 points ahead of last year’s 33% and 15 points ahead of the five-year average pace of 39%. “Kansas winter wheat is 80% harvested, much quicker than average, and Illinois is 89% harvested, much further along than its five-year average of 49% for this date,” said DTN Senior Analyst Dana Mantini. “Arkansas is 94% done, Missouri 92% and Oklahoma 95% — all well ahead of average.”
— Crop condition: 51% of the crop remaining in fields was rated in good-to-excellent condition, down 1 point from 52% the previous week and still up considerably from 40% a year ago.
SPRING WHEAT
— Crop development: 38% of spring wheat was headed, 7 percentage points behind last year’s 45% but slightly ahead of the five-year average of 37%.
— Crop condition: NASS estimated that 72% of the crop was in good-to-excellent condition nationwide, up 1 percentage point from 71% the previous week. That remains ahead of last year’s rating of 48% good to excellent. “The good-to-excellent rating for North Dakota rose 6 percentage points to 78%, while South Dakota jumped 3 percentage points to 81%,” Mantini said. “Minnesota had the highest rating of 86% — up 5% on the week.”
THE WEEK AHEAD IN WEATHER
Two forecast storm systems will likely bring widespread rain to the Corn Belt this week — good news for thirsty crops but possibly bad news for Fourth of July celebrations on Thursday, according to DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick.
“It’s another active week across the Corn Belt,” Baranick said. “We should see two solid storm systems move through the northern tier of the U.S. or southern Canada this week, and their cold fronts will sweep through the Corn Belt. It may take a couple of days to get into the Eastern Corn Belt, but widespread precipitation is expected this week, quite possibly ruining the fireworks celebrations for millions of us.
“A couple more disturbances will move through this weekend with more showers and thunderstorms but much less potential for heavy rain. Those in the heavily saturated areas in the northwestern Corn Belt probably do not like the forecast, but those that are across the southern and Eastern Corn Belt probably do.
“Last week’s Drought Monitor showed a widespread increase in drought across the Eastern Corn Belt, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, but many of these areas have seen rain since, which should be beneficial, and we should see more this week.
“Temperatures will be moderate or even cool in the Northern Plains this week, while it remains much hotter across the South and Southeast where we could see some triple-digit readings. Areas in between should see temperatures waffling around as systems pass through, but nothing extreme is in the forecast for this week.”
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Editor’s Note: How are your crops looking? Are they better, worse or right on track with USDA NASS’ observations this week? Send us your comments, and we’ll add them to the Crop Progress report story. You can email comments to Anthony.greder@dtn.com or direct message him on social platform X @AGrederDTN. Please include the location of where you farm.
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To view weekly crop progress reports issued by National Ag Statistics Service offices in individual states, visit http://www.nass.usda.gov/…. Look for the U.S. map in the “Find Data and Reports by” section and choose the state you wish to view in the drop-down menu. Then look for that state’s “Crop Progress & Condition” report.
National Crop Progress Summary This Last Last 5-Year Week Week Year Avg. Corn Silking 11 4 7 6 Soybeans Emerged 95 90 97 93 Soybeans Blooming 20 8 20 15 Soybeans Setting Pods 3 NA 3 2 Winter Wheat Harvested 54 40 33 39 Spring Wheat Headed 38 18 45 37 Cotton Planted 97 94 98 99 Cotton Squaring 43 30 38 38 Cotton Setting Bolls 11 8 9 9 Sorghum Planted 96 90 90 94 Sorghum Headed 19 17 20 20 Sorghum Coloring 12 NA 11 11 Oats Headed 74 61 76 71 Barley Headed 38 12 32 38 Rice Headed 18 13 18 13
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National Crop Condition Summary (VP=Very Poor; P=Poor; F=Fair; G=Good; E=Excellent) This Week Last Week Last Year VP P F G E VP P F G E VP P F G E Corn 3 6 24 52 15 2 5 24 55 14 4 11 34 43 8 Soybeans 2 6 25 55 12 2 6 25 56 11 4 11 35 44 6 Winter Wheat 5 10 34 41 10 5 10 33 42 10 12 17 31 34 6 Spring Wheat 1 3 24 61 11 1 3 25 64 7 3 9 40 46 2 Sorghum 3 5 34 50 8 2 4 33 54 7 2 6 37 49 6 Cotton 8 9 33 44 6 5 9 30 51 5 7 14 31 41 7 Rice 1 2 15 67 15 1 1 15 67 16 1 4 25 59 11 Oat 6 5 22 57 10 6 5 22 57 10 7 9 39 42 3 Barley 1 4 31 60 4 1 2 29 65 3 1 6 42 49 2
Anthony Greder can be reached at anthony.greder@dtn.com
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