Corn comeback halted by rain, snow
More than half the corn crop is in and 93 percent is mature as wintry weather hits
The Illinois corn harvest crossed the halfway point last week, but is now being delayed by both rain and snow. (Pixabay)
By Ted Cox
More than half of the Illinois corn crop is in, but the harvest has once again been delayed by rain and now snow.
The much-delayed Illinois corn harvest crossed the halfway point last week. The weekly U.S. Department of Agriculture Crop Progress report released Monday found that 54 percent of the state’s corn crop had been harvested as of Sunday, a major improvement on the just over a third, 36 percent, registered the week before. That’s below the 88 percent of the crop that had been harvested at this time last year, and the 80 percent average over the last five years, but ahead of the national figure of 41 percent posted in the 18 states that comprise 94 percent of all U.S. corn acreage. Nationally, the corn crop was running behind the five-year average of 61 percent harvested at this time of year.
But rain kept farmers out of their fields over much of the state last weekend, and it was joined by snow over much of northern Illinois this week ahead of Halloween.
A freeze typically does little damage to the corn crop if it’s mature, and this week’s USDA report found that 93 percent of Illinois corn was mature, up from 88 percent last week. But over the last five years the entire crop was mature at this point of the season.
“We’ll need a couple weeks of good weather to finish harvest,” Moultrie County farmer Lucas Roney told FarmWeekNow.com.
The condition of the crop improved. According to the Crop Progress report, more than half of Illinois corn was rated good, 47 percent, or excellent, 8 percent, both up from last week. Some 32 percent was rated fair, 9 percent poor, and 4 percent very poor — all down from last week.
Many Illinois farmers reported the soybean harvest over, although statewide just over two-thirds of the crop was in, 69 percent, up from 52 percent last week, but below the five-year average of 82 percent. Nationally, in the 18 states that comprise 96 percent of U.S. soybean acreage, 62 percent of soybeans were harvested, behind the five-year average of 78 percent.