The corn and soybean crops still in the field made some great progress maturing in the last week. Corn maturity overall progressed 23 points from last week, and soybean leaf drop progressed by 20 points in the last seven days.

Sixty-three percent of the overall corn crop has reached maturity as of Sept. 29. This is 23 points ahead of the maturity rating last week, and just 7 points behind the five-year average. Fewer than a handful of states have less than 50% of the corn crop mature, including: Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Corn harvest is taking place in all states now, and 12% of the overall corn crop has been harvested, well behind the 23% five-year average. States with less than 10% of corn harvested include: Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Corn condition ratings stayed the same overall, but swapped a point in the good and excellent ratings. The crop is still at 55% good/excellent and 16% very poor/poor.

Soybeans

Soybeans dropping leaves made strong progress in the last seven days, going from 47% complete last week to 67% complete overall by Sept. 29. States where less than 50% of the soybean leaves have dropped include: Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Soybean harvest made some progress in the last week reaching 11% complete overall. The five-year average is 20% completion for this time, so 2013 is still behind average. The state of North Carolina has yet to harvest any soybeans. Louisiana has harvested the most at 68% complete.

Overall soybean condition improved in the last seven days. The good/excellent rating increased 3 points to 53% overall. Fifteen percent of the overall soybean crop is in very poor/poor condition.