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Corn quality holds (mostly) steady last week

Ben Potter, Senior editor

September 16, 2019

2 Min Read
oticki/ThinkstockPhotos

Ahead of Monday afternoon’s crop progress report, analysts expected USDA to dock the corn and soybean crops a point each for the week ending September 15. The agency complied with soybean quality ratings but held corn ratings mostly steady this past week.

Corn’s overall quality stayed at 55% rated good-to-excellent, but the breakdown of those ratings shifted slightly, moving from 45% rated good and 10% rated excellent a week ago to 44% rated good and 11% rated excellent this past week. Another 31% of the crop is rated fair, with the remaining 14% rated poor or very poor – all unchanged from a week ago.

State by state, some key production areas continue to show worrisome ratings overall. In Indiana, 28% of the crop is rated poor or very poor, for example. Illinois (19%), Michigan (21%) and Ohio (26%) are also well above the national average as the eastern Corn Belt has struggled relatively more than other parts of the Midwest this spring and summer.

Physiologically, 93% of the crop is now at dough stage, which is still a bit behind 2018’s pace of 99% and the five-year average of 98%. Other maturity stages highlight just how far behind this year’s crop really is, meantime. Just 68% of the crop is dented, versus a five-year average of 87%. Eighteen percent is mature, versus a five-year average of 39%.

Some corn harvest progress was also noted in some southern states this past week, bringing the Beltwide total up to 4%. That’s half of 2018’s pace of 8% and nearly half of the five-year average of 7%.

With soybeans, crop quality fell a point – in line with analyst expectations – to 54% in good-to-excellent condition. Another 32% of the crop is rated fair (down a point from a week ago), with the remaining 14% rated poor or very poor (up two points from last week).

Physiologically, 95% of the crop is setting pods. That’s up from 92% a week ago, but in a typical year, the entire crop has reached that maturity stage by mid-September. And just 15% are dropping leaves, versus 2018’s pace of 50% and the five-year average of 38%.

Spring wheat harvest is progressing slower than analyst estimates, reaching just 76% last week. That’s up from 71% a week ago but still well behind 2018’s pace of 96% and the five-year average of 93%.

And winter wheat planting progress has reached 8%, starting off sluggishly compared to 2018’s pace and the five-year average, both at 12%.

Click here for a look at other crop progress updates of note from USDA, including for cotton, peanuts, rice, sorghum and oats.

About the Author(s)

Ben Potter

Senior editor, Farm Futures

Senior Editor Ben Potter brings two decades of professional agricultural communications and journalism experience to Farm Futures. He began working in the industry in the highly specific world of southern row crop production. Since that time, he has expanded his knowledge to cover a broad range of topics relevant to agriculture, including agronomy, machinery, technology, business, marketing, politics and weather. He has won several writing awards from the American Agricultural Editors Association, most recently on two features about drones and farmers who operate distilleries as a side business. Ben is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

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