U.S. corn beginning to dent

Aug 16, 2019

About 7 percent of the national corn crop is in this stage, the USDA says

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

The U.S. crop is entering its next development stage.

About 7 percent of American corn is dented, the USDA’s latest Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin said on Aug. 13. That figure is down from 24 percent at this time last year.

At the state level, 74 percent of corn in Texas, where some producers have started harvest, is in the dent stage. That number is the highest among the 18 recorded states.

Corn in North Carolina is 70 percent dented. And like those producers in Texas, some farmers have begun combining.

“We’re all the way through with our corn and have had started to harvest the crop,” Jeff Sparks, a producer from Columbia, N.C., told Farms.com. “We harvested around 300 acres but the moisture levels were around 30 percent, so we’ve stopped for a little bit.”

Average yields on Sparks’s farm fall between 185 and 190 bushels per acre.

The early numbers on the yield monitor are a little lower than that, he said.

“So far, we’ve averaged between 150 and 160 bu/ac with our early-maturing varieties,” he said. “I think the later varieties are going to do better and get us closer to our average.”

The U.S. soybean crop also continues to progress.

About 54 percent of the crop is setting pods, the USDA says. That number is up from 37 percent last week.

Soybeans in Louisiana have set 96 percent of their pods, which is the most of the 18 major production states. Beans in Michigan have set 31 percent of their pods. That figure is the lowest of the surveyed states.

U.S. farmers continue to harvest wheat.

About 8 percent of the spring wheat harvest is complete. That figure is down from 32 percent last year, the USDA says.

Growers in Washington have harvested 18 percent of their state’s wheat acres and farmers in North Dakota have completed 5 percent of their harvest. Those figures are the highest and lowest among the six documented states.

American farmers have harvested 89 percent of national winter wheat acres. That figure is down from 93 percent last year.

Of the 18 recorded states, 10 (Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas) have finished harvest.

Farmers in Idaho have combined 36 percent of their winter wheat, which is the lowest among the major production states.

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