USDA Crop Progress: Corn 95% Planted, 74% Good to Excellent; Soybeans 87% Planted, 72% Good to Excellent as of June 9

This article was originally published at 3:04 p.m. CDT on Monday, June 10. It was last updated with additional information at 3:57 p.m. CDT on Monday, June 10.

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OMAHA (DTN) — Over 70% of corn and soybeans that have emerged are in good-to-excellent condition, up considerably from last year at this time, USDA NASS reported in its weekly Crop Progress on Monday.

Development of both crops continues to run slightly ahead of normal, NASS said.

CORN

— Planting progress: Corn planting inched ahead 4 percentage points last week to reach 95% complete nationwide as of Sunday, June 9. That is equal to the five-year average but is 3 percentage points behind last year’s 98%.

— Crop development: 85% of corn had emerged as of Sunday, 6 points behind last year’s 91% but 1 point ahead of the five-year average of 84%.

— Crop condition: NASS estimated that 74% of the crop was in good-to-excellent condition, down 1 point from 75% the previous week but well ahead of last year’s 61%. Five percent of the crop was rated very poor to poor compared to 4% last week and 8% last year. “Nebraska’s and Pennsylvania’s corn ratings lead the pack, at 84% and 93% good to excellent, respectively,” said DTN Senior Analyst Dana Mantini.       

SOYBEANS

— Planting progress: Soybean planting moved ahead 9 points last week, about steady with the previous week’s pace of 10 percentage points, to reach 87% complete as of Sunday. That was 8 percentage points behind last year’s 95% but 3 percentage points ahead of the five-year average of 84%.

— Crop development: 70% of soybeans had emerged as of Sunday, 13 points behind last year’s 83% but 4 points ahead of the five-year average of 66%.

— Crop condition: In its initial rating of this year’s soybean crop, NASS estimated 72% of the soybeans that had emerged were in good-to-excellent condition and just 4% were very poor to poor. That compares to last year’s rating of 59% good to excellent and 9% very poor to poor. “Nebraska soybeans are rated at 79% good to excellent,” Mantini noted.

WINTER WHEAT

— Crop development: 89% of winter wheat was headed as of Sunday. That was 2 points ahead of 87% at this time last year and 3 points ahead of the five-year average of 86%.

— Harvest progress: Harvest moved ahead 6 percentage points last week to reach 12% complete nationwide as of Sunday. That was 5 points ahead of last year’s 7% and 6 points ahead of the five-year average pace of 6%. “As usual, the winter wheat harvest is making the quickest progress in Southern states, with Texas 47% harvested, Oklahoma 48% harvested and Arkansas at 34%,” said DTN Lead Analyst Todd Hultman. “Kansas is just getting started at 5% harvested.”

— Crop condition: 47% of the crop was rated in good-to-excellent condition, down 2 points from 49% the previous week but still up considerably from 38% a year ago.

SPRING WHEAT

— Planting progress: 98% of spring wheat was planted as of Sunday, 2 points ahead of both last year and the five-year average of 96%. “Montana and North Dakota are the slowest states at 97% planted, almost done,” Hultman said.  

— Crop development: 87% of spring wheat has emerged, 1 point ahead of 86% last year and 4 points ahead of the five-year average of 83%.

— Crop condition: NASS estimated that 72% of the crop was in good-to-excellent condition nationwide, down 2 points from 74% the previous week. That is still ahead of last year’s rating of 60% good to excellent. “Seventy-nine percent of spring wheat in North Dakota was considered good-to-excellent,” Hultman noted.

THE WEEK AHEAD IN WEATHER

Following several weeks of significant rainfall, much of the country will be in a drier pattern this week, though there will still be chances of rain in northern areas, according to DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick. A significant pattern change will take place later in the week, which could bring the threat of hot, dry conditions to the Eastern Corn Belt.

“We saw heavy rainfall and severe weather go through the Central Plains and into Missouri over the weekend,” Baranick said. “That might have affected the wheat harvest but is good rainfall for most of the corn and soybean areas outside of some flooding. The Texas Panhandle has also had some good rainfall recently as well. These areas have not had good rainfall going into the summer in several years, which should hold up crop conditions for at least a little while.

“Wet conditions elsewhere in the Corn Belt are still a concern, and they’ll fight with additional precipitation this week as well. Even though the country is in a drier pattern, there are still a couple of systems that will go through northern areas through Thursday. That will produce some limited showers.

“But the pattern will be changing significantly late this week. An upper-level ridge in the West will shift to the East while a trough sets up in its place across the West. The shift will mean increasing temperatures for eastern areas and a busy storm track across the middle of the country that starts this weekend and probably lasts through next week. With the Gulf of Mexico being wide open, we could see a lot of rain falling in areas that don’t need it but keeping temperatures down a bit. Where precipitation doesn’t occur, and specifically looking at the Eastern Corn Belt, we could see some heat stress and an abrupt shift in the soil conditions. Going from extremely wet to extremely dry is a concern for the rest of June, and that all starts with the pattern shift later this week.”

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Editor’s Note: How are your crops looking? Are they better, worse or right on track with USDA NASS’ observations this week? Send us your comments, and we’ll add them to the Crop Progress report story. You can email comments to anthony.greder@dtn.com or direct message him on social platform X @AGrederDTN. Please include the location of where you farm.

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To view weekly crop progress reports issued by National Ag Statistics Service offices in individual states, visit http://www.nass.usda.gov/. Look for the U.S. map in the “Find Data and Reports by” section and choose the state you wish to view in the drop-down menu. Then look for that state’s “Crop Progress & Condition” report.

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Anthony Greder can be reached at anthony.greder@dtn.com

Follow him on social platform X @AGrederDTN