Agricultural News
Corn Ratings Continue to Tumble- So do Pasture and Range Ratings
Mon, 16 Jul 2012 20:16:52 CDTCorn and soybean conditions fell precipitously again this week, according to USDA's weekly Crop Progress and Condition reports.
Thirty-eight percent of the nation's corn was rated poor to very poor for the week ended July 15, according to USDA. That compares to 30% last week. Only 31% of the crop is rated good to excellent, compared to 40% last week.
John Sanow with DTN says that the sliding conditions are a strong case for reductions in USDA crop production estimates. "This supports the argument that USDA will need to lower total production significantly from the current level tied to losses in yield and harvested acreage," Sanow said. On a state by state basis- Kentucky checks in at 77% poor to very poor, Indiana at 71% poor to very poor and Missouri at 72% poor to very poor. Illinois also shows lots of stress in their corn crop- with a 56% poor to very poor rating.
Thirty percent of U.S. soybeans are rated poor to very poor compared to 27% last week. Thirty-four percent of the crop is rated good to excellent, compared to 40% last week. The poor to very poor ratings on a state by state basis also shows lots of problems in the eastern corn belt- Missouri at 69%, Indiana at 57%, Kentucky at 52%, Ohio at 42% and Illinois at 41% poor to very poor.
USDA reported pod setting at 16%, compared to 5% last year and a 9% five-year average. This is not exactly the ideal scenario given temperatures are expected to remain well above average over the next 10 days," Sanow said. Most experts still see hope for recovery in many soybean production areas, but the weather must improve in the near future.
Grain Sorghum has slipped a little further in the last week- dropping a couple of percentage points from 32% go to excellent down to 30%. In contrast, two southern crops, cotton and peanuts, held their own this past week, with cotton at 45% good to excellent, up one percentage point in the "good" category from a week ago while peanuts are up two percentage points in the good to excellent categories from a week earlier at 68% good to excellent. Both of these crops are in far better condition than they were in 2011- because of the historic drought conditions the southwest suffered under last summer.
Finally, Pasture and Range conditions slipped further into poor to very poor ratings- increasing by four percentage points from a week ago to 54% poor to very poor. The Show me state of Missouri has seen their psture ratings collapse further in the last seven days by another five percentage points- now at 92% poor to very poor. Other states that show high percentages of awful pasture conditions- Indiana at 87%, New Mexico at 85%, Arkansas at 83%, Illinois at 83% and Arizona at 80% poor to very poor.
Both Texas and Oklahoma are in far better condition than in 2011- the three worst pasture and range states in mid July a year ago were Texas at 94% poor to very poor, New Mexico at 90% and Oklahoma at 78% poor to very poor. Missouri was having a normal year last year at this point in the growing season- with 41% of their pastures in good to excellent condition.
For the complete Crop Progress report from USDA released on Monday afternoon, click here.
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