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USDA crop progress: Corn harvest still going

Soybean harvest inches closer to completion.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

November 25, 2019

2 Min Read
Corn Exports

Monday’s crop progress report from USDA was yet another reminder that little has gone as planned in 2019.

“Today’s report was originally scheduled to be the last Crop Progress report of the 2019 season,” USDA notes. “However, due to delays in harvest progress, the weekly National Crop Progress report will be extended. NASS will evaluate harvest progress for all crops each week to determine how long to continue the report.”

As of November 24, 16% of this year’s corn crop has still yet to be harvested, according to USDA’s latest data. This week’s tally of 84% does mark moderate progress from last week’s 76% but remains well behind 2018’s pace of 93% and the five-year average of 96%.

A dismal 30% of the crop in North Dakota has been harvested so far, with Wisconsin (57%), Michigan (56%) and South Dakota (68%) also languishing far behind the national average. Across the Corn Belt, some 13 million acres have yet to be harvested at this time.

Soybean harvest progress is faring somewhat better, moving from 91% complete a week ago up to 94% as of November 24. That’s in line with 2018’s pace of 94% but a bit behind the prior five-year average of 97%.

A statewide look at soybean harvest progress shows that each of the top 18 production states are at least 80% complete, with the exception of North Carolina (67%). Aside from that, Michigan (80%), Wisconsin (82%) and North Dakota (89%) have the furthest to go.

Farther south, the U.S. cotton harvest has reached 78% completion, up from 68% a week ago and maintaining a slim lead over the prior five-year average of 74%.

USDA has marked planting progress as complete for the 2019/20 winter wheat crop, with 87% of the crop emerged. That’s slightly ahead of 2018’s pace of 85% and slightly behind the prior five-year average of 90%.

Although analysts expected USDA to dock crop quality another point this week, the agency held ratings steady from a week ago, with 52% of the crop in good-to-excellent condition. Another 34% of the crop is rated fair, with the remaining 14% rated poor or very poor – also steady from last week.

Click here to read the latest USDA crop progress report in its entirety.

About the Author

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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