Agricultural News
Spurred by Dry Weather, Farmers Are Making Rapid Progress Planting Wheat And Harvesting Fall Crops
Mon, 05 Oct 2020 16:46:50 CDT
Tremendous progress has been made by farmers planting winter wheat as more than half (52 percent) of all intended acres have now been planted, according to the latest USDA crop progress report.
This is a 17 percent increase from last week.
Farmers in Nebraska, Colorado, Washington and South Dakota are mostly finished planting winter wheat.
The top two producing states, Kansas and Oklahoma are about half done.
Planting progress has been spurred by dry weather, but the numbers are about in line with the 5-year average for this date.
Approximately 24 percent of the planted acres have emerged, which is slightly ahead of normal.
Farmers are also putting in long hours in the fields harvesting fall crops.
The national corn crop is 87 percent mature, 9 points ahead of normal. They have harvested 25 percent of the crop with farmers in North Carolina and Texas nearing completion.
Soybean harvest is also underway with 38 percent of the crop harvested, 10 points ahead of normal.
Farmers in Iowa, Louisiana. Minnesota, North Carolina, South Dakota and North Dakota have all passed the halfway mark in harvesting soybeans.
Grain sorghum harvest in the six major producing states has now reached 38 percent, with Texas farmers nearing completion.
Cotton harvest is barely underway with only 17 percent of the acres harvested so far, 3 points below average.
Other crops of interest now being harvested include peanuts (17 percent complete) and sunflowers (11 percent).
Dry weather continues to plague the nation's pasture and range conditions as only 26 percent are rated good to excellent, 36 percent fair and 38 percent poor to very poor.
Much of the attention has been focused on the drought in the western and Rocky Mountain states where Oregon has 87 percent of their acres listed as poor to very poor, California has 55 percent in that category and New Mexico has 46 percent listed as poor to very poor.
Notably, pasture and range conditions in the far northeast have been in rough condition all year as that area has been gripped in an unusual drought. Rhode Island has 100 percent of their pasture and range conditions listed as poor to very poor. Both Connecticut and Massachusetts have 94 percent of the acres in the poor to very poor category.
To view the national crop progress report, click here.
For Oklahoma, winter wheat planted reached 45 percent, down 9 points from the previous year and down 2 points from normal.
Winter wheat emerged reached 20 percent, down 2 points from the previous year but up 3 points from normal.
Oklahoma corn acres harvested reached 46 percent, down 1 point from the previous year and down 9 points from normal.
Grain sorghum maturity reached 65 percent, up 5 points from the previous year but down 5 points from normal.
Grain sorghum acres harvested reached 35 percent, up 13 points from the previous year but down 1 point from normal.
Soybeans dropping leaves reached 42 percent, up 17 points from the previous year and up 3 points from normal.
Oklahoma soybean acres harvested reached 9 percent, up 8 points from the previous year and up 2 points from normal.
Peanuts mature reached 55 percent, up 8 points from the previous year but unchanged from normal.
Peanuts harvested reached 5 percent, up 2 points from the previous year but unchanged from normal.
Cotton bolls opening reached 68 percent, down 7 points from the previous year but unchanged from normal.
Cotton harvest has not yet started in Oklahoma.
The fourth cutting of alfalfa hay reached 89 percent, up 8 points from the previous year and up 5 points from normal.
The fifth cutting of alfalfa hay reached 19 percent, up 19 points from the previous year and up 13 points from normal.
The second cutting of other hay reached 95 percent, up 2 points from the previous year and up 6 points from normal.
The third cutting of other hay reached 45 percent, down 1 point from the previous year but up 4 points from normal.
Oklahoma pasture and range conditions are rated at 29 percent good to excellent, 49 percent fair and 22 percent poor to very poor.
To view the Oklahoma crop progress report, click here.
For Kansas, winter wheat planted was 56 percent, ahead of the 41 percent mark for both last year and the five-year average.
Kansas wheat emerged was 29 percent, ahead of 21 percent last year and 19 percent average.
The Kansas corn crop mature was 92 percent ahead of 81 percent last year, and near 89 percent average.
Kansas corn farmers have harvested 44 percent of their crop, ahead of 34 percent last year, but behind 49 percent average.
Kansas soybeans dropping leaves was 82 percent, well ahead of 58 percent last year, and ahead of 69 percent average.
Kansas soybean harvest stands at 20 percent complete, ahead of 4 percent last year and 11 percent average.
Grain sorghum maturity was 71 percent, well ahead of 48 percent last year, and ahead of 61 percent average.
Kansas grain sorghum harvest was 14 percent complete, ahead of 9 percent last year, but near 15 percent average.
Cotton bolls opening was 64 percent, near 60 percent last year, and ahead of 57 percent average.
Kansas cotton harvest is just underway with 1 percent complete, near the 3 percent average.
Kansas sunflowers harvested was 4 percent, near 6 percent last year and 5 percent average.
Pasture and range conditions rated 38 percent good to excellent, 36 percent fair and 26 percent poor to very poor.
To view the Kansas crop progress report, click here.
For our neighbors to the south, small grain plantings continued to progress in the High Plains region of Texas, while irrigated winter wheat had begun to emerge in the Northern High Plains.
Meanwhile, extreme winds and lack of rain delayed the progress of plantings in the Low Plains.
Other areas of Texas, such as the Blacklands, the Cross Timbers, the Edwards Plateau, South Central Texas and South Texas, planting continued as conditions allowed.
Some producers in the Upper Coast indicated they may postpone planting small grains until early November.
Overall, Texas wheat farmers have planted 44 percent of their acres with 18 percent emerged.
Corn harvest continued to progress in areas of the High Plains, while irrigated fields in the Cross Timbers also progressed.
Texas farmers have harvested 78 percent of their corn acres.
Some cotton producers in the Northern High Plains region should begin harvest soon while others await field maturity. Meanwhile, in the Southern High Plains and Low Plains some cotton producers had begun harvesting. However, development of some cotton fields in the Southern Low Plains have not progressed well due to cooler temperatures.
Cotton harvest neared completion in the Blacklands, South Texas, and the Edwards Plateau while progressing in the Trans-Pecos.
To date, Texas farmers have harvested 26 percent of their cotton acres.
Texas grain sorghum harvest is nearing completion with 88 percent of the acres harvested.
Pecans continued to progress, and harvest should begin soon in areas of the Southern High Plains, the Edwards Plateau, South Central Texas, the Trans-Pecos, and South Texas.
In some areas of South Texas, strawberry producers readied fields for planting which should begin soon. Winter vegetable fields in areas of South Texas continued to progress.
Supplemental feeding continued to slow in South Central Texas but continued in areas of South Texas. Stock tank levels were no longer a concern in areas of South Texas.
Texas pasture and range condition were rated 33 percent good to excellent, 41 percent fair and 26 percent poor to very poor.
To view the Texas report, click here.
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