(Agriculture.com) – Winter’s just around the corner. It looks like now, so too is the end of the 2013 fall harvest.
Monday’s USDA-NASS weekly Crop Progress report shows 95% of the corn crop is harvested, a 4% advance in the last week and the same progress over the normal pace. Though week-to-week progress has been slowed by an early onrush of winter temperatures and precipitation, the end of corn harvest will likely come in the next week, with farmers in all but 3 states — Wisconsin, Michigan and North Dakota — within a handful of percentage points of the finish line.
“Corn harvest is getting down to ‘the short rows’ as some of my older relatives would say, but if you still have fieldwork to do, please be careful — this kind of weather can make icy conditions pretty common in the mornings before the sun comes out,” says Cargil senior grain merchandiser in Eddyville, Iowa, Ray Jenkins.
Soybean futures led the grains to higher closing prices Monday, with the January contract closing at $13.29 1/4, while December corn surged to $4.25, up well over a dime over last week’s lows on Tuesday and Wednesday.
All in all, NASS’ 97% completion rate for corn harvest has Iowa secretary of agriculture Bill Northey — and many other farmers like him — starting to reflect on the growing season as a whole and look ahead to 2014. “At the end of each growing season farmers reflect on the year, but also look forward to the next and consider what they can do to make the next year even more successful. 2013 certainly presented a number challenges, from late planting due to wet weather to a flash drought late in the summer, but overall it was a fairly successful year that showed again the resiliency and commitment of Iowa’s farmers.”
If you do still have corn to harvest, the latest regional weather forecast probably won’t help you in your field planning; data released from the U.S. Climate Prediction Center recently shows, without a distinct El Niño or La Niña pattern in place right now, it’s tough to ascertain exactly what Mother Nature’s going to throw at us, at least in the early stages of winter.
“It’s a challenge to produce a long-term winter forecast without the climate pattern of an El Niño or a La Niña in place out in the Pacific because those climate patterns often strongly influence winter temperature and precipitation here in the United States,” says director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center, Mike Halpert. “Without this strong seasonal influence, winter weather is often affected by short-term climate patterns, such as the Arctic Oscillation, that are not predictable beyond a week or two. So it’s important to pay attention to your local daily weather forecast throughout the winter.”
