In this week’s report, USDA left the national corn condition rating unchanged at 54 percent in the combined good to excellent categories. In the I-80 Corridor, the only state that reported a change was Illinois which improved by two points since a week ago. However, outside the Corridor, both North Dakota and Pennsylvania showed five point declines. Minnesota and South Dakota both went down by three. Tennessee reported a five point improvement, but it should be noted that USDA says 42 percent of the Tennessee corn crop is already “mature,” so you have to take that rating with a grain of salt as it won’t help the overall state yield that much at this point. Further north, Kentucky, Michigan, and Wisconsin all showed two point improvements.
The national soybean condition rating also held steady, leaving it at 57 percent good to excellent for another week. In the I-80 Corridor, Iowa had the best showing as its rating came up by three points. Indiana gained two points. On the other hand, Nebraska and Ohio both declined by two points. Outside the Corridor, Louisiana saw another massive drop of 17 points in its condition rating due to the continuing ravages of recent flooding. Mississippi lopped off six points. Missouri and South Dakota trimmed their ratings by four. On the plus side, the biggest improvement of 13 points was seen in Tennessee. Unlike the corn, Tennessee’s soybeans are only dropping leaves (a sign of nearing maturity) on 15 percent of its acres, so in this case the crop is definitely benefiting from recent timely rain. Other notable mentions of improvement were Michigan coming up by six points with Arkansas and Kentucky each reporting five point gains.
Cotton condition nationwide came up by one point to land at 35 percent good to excellent. However, most of the top producing states saw improvements in their crop. North Carolina posted a large 11 point gain since a week ago. Alabama added eight points and Mississippi picked up four. Further down on the production list, we also saw improvements of eight points in Arkansas and seven in Tennessee. Just as in the soybean ratings, Louisiana got crushed as it lost 14 points from its good to excellent rating. (Heavy rains can be devastating to open cotton bolls - causing large losses of yield and quality.) Kansas dropped by nine points while South Carolina and California both trimmed their ratings by five.
Grain sorghum (milo) condition nationwide remained the same with 25 percent still rated good to excellent. Among the key producing states, most remained unchanged from last week. However, Oklahoma posted a nine point improvement and Kansas had a two point decline. Don’t ask me how that averages out to no change nationally, but that’s USDA for you. ??
Grain sorghum harvest moved up to 20 percent complete nationwide after only two percent of the nation’s acres were cut in the last seven days. The vast majority of harvested acres is still located in the largest producing state of Texas which has 68 percent of its crop now out of the field.
Rice condition improved by two points nationwide where it now stands at 72 percent good to excellent, but as harvest pushes forward, the numbers have less meaning. Mississippi posted the largest improvement of nine points in its rating while Arkansas gained six. California reported a five point decline.
Rice harvest nationwide has reached 24 percent completion compared to its five-year average of 28 percent. Texas leads the way with 81 percent harvested. Louisiana has now fallen behind its average pace by eight points to come in at 75 percent complete as of Sunday. Mississippi did make some good headway, getting 21 percent out of the field last week, so they are now 23 percent cut.
Peanut condition nationwide inched upward by one point to 70 percent good to excellent thanks to a three point improvement in the largest producing state of Georgia. However, the remainder of the top five producing states all reported declines in condition with Florida showing the largest drop of nine points. South Carolina went down by six.
Spring wheat harvest nationwide is still running behind its five-year average pace by 12 points where it is now reported to be 71 percent complete. South Dakota is basically done with 97 percent out of the field. North Dakota made strong progress - cutting 28 percent of its acres last week to push it up to 62 percent now. But, that is still 18 points behind where it should be. Minnesota is still lagging badly in its harvest activity as it only has 57 percent harvested when it normally would have 90 percent done by now.
Pasture conditions continue to rebound in Texas where the good to excellent rating came up by 11 points from one week ago thanks to recent heavy rainfall. Oklahoma picked up a couple of points. In the High Plains, Colorado pastureland rebounded by five points. North Dakota pastureland came down by nine points in its rating. South Dakota sank by four and Montana declined by three.
In the topsoil moisture deficit category (generally considered to measure the top four inches of soil representing the seed planting and sprouting zone), Kansas takes over the dubious top spot with the driest conditions as 86 percent of its acres are now rated short to very short. That means a six point drop in moisture availability from last week. Montana reported eight more points in the driest categories, so they bounced back into the second spot with 85 percent short to very short. Nebraska is now third with 84 percent.
In the subsoil moisture deficit category (considered to measure deep soil moisture down to a few feet where the crop roots would extend downward), Kansas moves into a tie with Montana at the top spot with 85 percent of each of their states falling into the short to very short categories. Oklahoma held steady at 81 percent this week to take the third spot on the list. The biggest improvement among the driest states was seen in Wyoming where nine percent of its acres came back out of the driest combined categories.
