Corn Planting Near Five-Year Average

May 20th, 2014

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Category: Grains, Oilseeds

(Investing.com) – Last week’s accelerated planting progress for corn acres was not duplicated as wet and cold weather kept farmers on the sideline.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated 73% of corn acres were planted across the U.S. as of May 18th, a 14% increase from the prior week. Cold and wet weather prevented farmers from repeating the prior week’s progress of 30%. Overall corn planting progress is only 3% behind the five-year average. Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin are all 20% or more behind their five-year average due to colder temperatures and above average rainfall. Corn emergence was reported at 34%, the five-year average is 42%.

Soybean planting lost some ground on the five-year average due to wet and cold weather in the major growing regions. Soybean planting was reported at 33%, 5% behind the five-year average. Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin are well behind in planting progress due to the continued wet and cold temperatures in the northern states. 9% of soybeans were reported emerged, 2% behind the five-year average.

Winter wheat conditions were slightly changed from the past week. The USDA reported that 21% of the wheat was in “very poor” condition, compared to 20% last week. Wheat rated excellent decreased 1%, wheat rated poor decreased 2%, and wheat rated “good” increased 2%. Wheat rated fair was unchanged. 57% of the wheat was headed, only 1% behind the five-year average.

July futures for corn closed the week at $4.77 per bushel, a 4.4% decline from last week. July soybeans ended the week at $14.83, a 1.2% increase from last week, and July wheat ended the week at $6.75, a 5.6% decrease from last week. Year to year corn prices are down 26.5%, soybeans are up 1.3%, and wheat is down 1.5%.

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