Crop Progress: Corn Harvest Continues
Sep 29, 2011
On Monday, the USDA released its weekly crop progress report. The corn harvest is 15% complete, which is on pace with the 16% five-year historical average. USDA estimated that 52% of the corn crop is in good or excellent condition, up 1% from last week. The estimate for corn in very poor or poor condition decreased to 20%, compared to 21% last week. Last year at this time, 13% of the crop was in very poor or poor condition, while 66% was in good or excellent condition.
USDA estimated that 96% of the corn crop was dented, while 99% was last year in the fourth week of September; the five-year historical average is 96%. Out of the entire corn crop, 63% was considered mature by the USDA this week, 46% was mature last week and 83% was mature last year at this point. The five-year historical average is 64% in the fourth week of September.
Soybean conditions remained the same as last week. Of the 18 primary soybean-producing states, 18% of the soybean crop is in poor or very poor condition, while 53% is in good or excellent condition, which is well off 2010 estimates of 13% and 63%, respectively, for the fourth week of September. USDA estimated that 58% of soybeans were dropping leaves by this week, which is again lagging the five-year historical average of 68% for the fourth week of September.
The spring wheat harvest is slightly ahead of historical averages, with 96% of the harvest complete so far. The five-year historical average is 95% of the spring wheat crop harvested by this week in September.
Corn prices decreased by 6.4% over the past week, ending at $6.48 per bushel; soybeans were down 5.8% to $12.59 per bushel; and wheat ended the week down 3.7%, closing at $6.48 per bushel. Year-over-year corn prices are up 26.6%, soybeans are up 11.6% and wheat is down 8.2%.
-Colvin
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