(Agriculture.com) – If Tuesday’s USDA Crop Progress data are any indication, a lot of farmers have been switching to soybeans in the last week of largely limited harvest action.
Rain and cool temperatures have kept the last week of corn and soybean harvest action fairly light; farmers got 7% of the corn crop harvested in the last week to reach 24% completion. That’s almost 20% behind the average pace, according to Tuesday’s report. Soybean harvest, on the other hand, doubled in the last week, with farmers going from 20% to 40%. Despite that major progress, farmers are still 13% behind the normal pace (53%) for this week.
“Rain and wet conditions has slowed down the harvest in the eastern and central Corn Belt, while the western Corn Belt is rapidly finishing up the soybean harvest,” says Kluis Commodities broker and market analyst Al Kluis. “The USDA report on [corn] conditions showed the nation’s corn crop rated at 74% good to excellent, unchanged from last week. Corn harvested is at 24%, up 7% from last week, but a little behind the five year average of 43%. The nation’s soybean crop rating was unchanged at 73% good to excellent. Soybean harvested is at 40%, up 20% from last week, but down 13% from the five year average.”
Though the soybean progress was a breath of fresh air for many farmers in areas of the Midwest where fall harvest has largely been a stop-and-go affair, don’t expect a repeat of that progress in next week’s report, with the rain that’s fallen in parts of the Corn Belt over the last few days, adds Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey.
“It was good to make some progress with harvest last week but we are still well behind the five year average,” he says. “Some parts of the state may have a challenge trying to catch up with harvest due to the wet weather we are experiencing this week.
Kluis says he expects the USDA data and overnight grain trading to send both corn and soybean prices slightly lower after a double-digit-higher trading day for both pits.
