In many of the nation’s key corn and soybean growing regions, the last couple of weeks have been slightly dry but not too hot. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says that the recent lack of extreme heat has been beneficial for row crops during a critical portion of the growing season.
He says good growing conditions has led to continued solid crop condition ratings for corn in the United States.
Compared to last year’s ratings at this time, Rippey says the crop condition rating was not nearly as high.
For soybeans over the last week, Rippey says not much has changed in the overall condition rating.
This week only 8% of U.S. soybeans were rated poor or very poor.
Rippey says that only a handful of midwestern states are behind the five-year average in terms of corn crop progress.
He says the upper Midwest is also the problem spot for soybean crop progress this growing season.
