USDA Weekly Crop Progress Report

This article was originally posted at 3:03 p.m. CDT on Monday, Oct. 19. It was last updated at 3:42 p.m. CDT on Monday, Oct. 19.

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OMAHA (DTN) -- Mostly dry weather across much of the nation's midsection last week helped farmers push harvest past the halfway mark for corn and hit the three-quarters mark for soybeans by the end of the week, according to the USDA NASS weekly Crop Progress report released on Monday.

NASS estimated that 75% of soybeans were harvested as of Sunday, Oct. 18, up 14 percentage points from 61% on Oct. 11. That was a slower pace than the previous week but still puts this year's harvest 17 percentage points ahead of the five-year average of 58%.

"The soybean harvest is 96% complete in Minnesota, Nebraska is 92% harvested, Iowa is 90% complete and Illinois is 81% harvested," said DTN Senior Analyst Dana Mantini.

Nearly all of soybeans -- 97% -- were dropping leaves as of Sunday. NASS has stopped reporting soybean conditions for the year.

While the soybean harvest slowed somewhat last week, the corn harvest picked up speed, moving ahead 19 percentage points to reach 60% complete as of Sunday. That pushed this year's corn harvest progress further ahead of normal -- now 17 percentage points ahead of the five-year average of 43%.

"Sixty-five percent of the corn crop in Iowa was harvested, well ahead of its usual pace," Mantini noted. "Illinois corn is 66% harvested, Minnesota is 63% versus a 29% average, Nebraska is 58% done versus an average of 31%, and South Dakota is 40 points ahead of the average at 64% harvested."

Corn reaching maturity was estimated at 97% as of Sunday, 3 percentage points ahead of the five-year average of 94%. Corn condition was unchanged from the previous week at 61% good to excellent.

Meanwhile, winter wheat planting slowed last week, moving ahead 9 percentage points from 68% the previous week to 77% as of Sunday. That is 5 percentage points ahead of the five-year average of 72%. An estimated 51% of winter wheat had emerged, 3 percentage points ahead of the five-year average of 48%.

"Kansas winter wheat is 84% planted, Nebraska wheat is 94% planted and South Dakota is 97% planted." Mantini noted.

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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 Mature	97	94	82	94
Corn Harvested	60	41	28	43
Soybeans Dropping Leaves	97	93	91	95
Soybeans Harvested	75	61	40	58
Winter Wheat Planted	77	68	74	72
Winter Wheat Emerged	51	41	50	48
Cotton Bolls Opening	93	90	91	89
Cotton Harvested	34	26	38	34
Sorghum Mature	95	90	89	88
Sorghum Harvested	63	49	46	51
Rice Harvested	91	83	91	93

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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	5	9	25	46	15	5	9	25	46	15	4	10	30	45	11
Cotton	10	23	27	31	9	12	18	30	31	9	5	18	36	33	8

Anthony Greder can be reached at anthony.greder@dtn.com

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