Corn, Soybean Decline Continues
Latest Crop Progress Report shows corn and soybeans hit by 2012 Drought.
Willie Vogt 
Published: Jul 16, 2012
With 71% of the corn crop now silking, there's little good news on the quality front. The crop has declined to 31% good to excellent, another significant drop from 40% good to excellent last week. In fact, 38% of the crop is now poor to very poor.
About 12% of the crop that is standing has reached dough stage, according to the latest USDA Crop Progress Report. Indiana has seen its corn crop deteriorate to 8% good to excellent, with 71% poor to very poor. Illinois is right behind with 11% in good to excellent with 56% poor to very poor.
Minnesota remains a sweet spot with 67% good to excellent, but that's still a slide from last week when the crop was 77% good to excellent. That 10 percentage point decline is a sign that the state is not seeing as much rain as it did before - the decline is actually a 13% slip in quality.
SLIDING LOWER: Only 31% of the corn crop is good to excellent in today's USDA report. Iowa shows 36% good to excellent, which is a solid performance but a further sign that across the Corn Belt the crop is declining.
While the report was prepared with data through last Friday, the weekend rains didn't offer much hope for standing corn in dry areas. The rain was spotty and unhelpful across most of the Corn Belt.
Soybeans: About 16% of the U.S. soybean crop is setting pods, which is about twice as fast as the five-year average. And 66% of the crop is blooming in key soybean states.
But crop condition has slipped to 34% good to excellent down from 40% last week. That 6 percentage point drop is a 15% decline in quality overall. And 20% of the crop is rated poor to very poor.
Indiana top the list of damaged soybeans with 11% good to excellent in the Hoosier state while Illinois isn't far behind the decline with 17% good to excellent. For Indiana, 57% of the soybean crop rates poor to very poor. In Illinois the number is 41%.
Wheat: The winter wheat crop is 80% complete, and ahead of schedule. And not a moment too soon. Continued hot weather is hitting the remaining crop pretty hard. Meanwhile, 94% of the spring wheat crop is headed out, which has the crop running about two weeks ahead of schedule - about par for the course this season. Spring wheat condition, is holding steady at 65% good to excellent. That's only a slight drop from last week's 66% good to excellent rating.
Cotton: About 82% of the crop is squaring and 36% is setting bolls, which is just a bit ahead of schedule for this time of year. The nation's cotton crop is also holding its own with 45% good to excellent up a bit from last week. Missouri and Kansas have the lowest rates of good to excellent cotton - 17% and 36% respectively - which indicates the weather challenges in the Midwest - though Texas joins in with 35% good to excellent.
Sorghum: About 30% of the crop is heading, which is just ahead of schedule. All states in the report are running ahead of the five-year average except Colorado with 10% of the crop heading versus 15% for the five-year average. And about 19% of the crop is coloring.
As for condition, the crop is down to about 30% good to excellent, off from 32% at those ratings last week.
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Tagged: Corn Belt, soybean crop, usda, winter wheat, usda crop progress
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