Remarkable Corn Progress

“Remarkable” is how USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey describes the progress of this year’s corn crop.

“The corn crop, as of August 22, already passing the halfway mark for dented. That’s pretty remarkable for this early in the season,” Rippey says. In fact, 54 percent of the crop is dented, according to USDA’s latest report, compared to 37 percent for the five year average. Eight percent of the crop is mature, which is two points ahead of average and well ahead of last year at this time. USDA is not yet reporting harvest numbers, but states like North Carolina where over 70 percent of the crop is mature have already been combining for a couple of weeks now. Unfortunately, that state’s crop is in the poorest condition of all the states, with just 28 percent rated good to excellent – and most of that is just in the good category.

Nationwide, the crop is rated 70 percent good to excellent, with the Dakotas and Colorado over 80 percent. Even Iowa’s crop is still rated almost 70 percent good to excellent. ”Even though some areas of the State have continued to receive crop damage, the over all crop conditions remain in pretty good shape,” commented Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, who is a corn farmer himself. Farmers in the area are optimistic, according to the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

Dean Taylor, a corn and soybean farmer from Prairie City, Iowa and president-elect of the Iowa Corn Growers Association has been affected by the floods. “Three weeks ago, our crops looked great. We were looking at 200 bushels per acre corn and above, but now even non-flooded fields that received 10-15 inches of rain in one week might top out at 120 to 130 bushels per acre. I think we’ve learned from 1993, that rain does not always make grain,” explained Taylor.

The weather has been drier over the past week, which has helped out quite a bit, and the crop looks like it could very well be a record as USDA is predicting.