How Far Along Are Your Crops? You Responded...
May 22, 2012
Warm, dry conditions across the Corn Belt the latter half of last week helped planting to near to complete for corn and to near the halfway point for soybeans; both crops remain well ahead of the normal planting pace. Warm temps have also encouraged a rapid development — 56% of the corn crop had emerged as of May 13 according to USDA's Crop Progress Report. I expect next Monday's report to tell much the same story as conditions were warm and dry this week, too.
With this in mind, I thought it would be interesting to put together photos documenting the pace of crop development around the country. With a lot of help from my Twitter followers, I was able to compile some photos illustrating the variances in crop development from Canada to Louisiana.
I'd love to add to this post. E-mail me your snapshots or tag me in a tweet (@MeghanPedersen) with the date it was taken and the field's location (county and state). Feel free to send comments as some of the gentlemen below did. Enjoy!
05/22/12— Caddo Parish, LA: "Doublecrop are emerging and looking solid despite the dry weather. Hope those roots can find some moisture."
05/19/12— Arkansas: "Dry in Arkansas... we are watering soybeans up!!"
05/19/12— Hamilton County, IN: "Beans planted first."
05/18/12— Palmyra Township, MI: "Seeing more 20-inch rows each year."
05/16/12— Near Chandlerville, IL
05/16/12— Kane County, IL (35 miles from downtown Chicago): "Most of my career I was tickled to start planting beans by May 15. Half my crop is up and growing… bumper crop????"
05/16/12— Central Ontario, Canada: "All corn planted between April 19 and May 2 is finally emerging today. Feels good!
05/16/12— Grinder's Switch Winery Garden, Centerville, TN
05/14/12— Caddo "Parish," LA: "It may be dry but most of the corn is kicking ass."
05/14/12— Caddo "Parish," LA: "Soybeans grew a lot last week. Fourth year of no-till in this field. This was one of the worst fields, but it's looking productive now."