Wet Fields Delay Harvest

Just four percent of the nation’s corn crop was harvested last week, thanks to cool, rainy conditions that kept combines out of the fields. Only 17 percent of the crop had been harvested as of Sunday, according to USDA.

“We should be approaching the halfway mark,” says USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey. “46 percent is the five year average and we see tremendous harvest delays in much of the Midwest and down into the south.”

Only one percent of the crop has been harvested in North Dakota, three percent in Michigan and Minnesota, five and six percent in Wisconsin and South Dakota and eight percent in Ohio. Maturity is running almost 50 percent behind normal in North Dakota, with just over 40 percent of the corn crop mature. Nationwide, 83 percent is mature, compared to the five year average of 97 percent.

But, the harvest can catch up quickly. Here in Missouri, just 40 percent of the corn crop was harvested as of yesterday. I just took a quick drive around the river bottom near the capitol and saw whole fields had been harvested courtesy of the warm, sunny and dry weather we had today.