The latest weekly USDA Crop Progress Report shows the 2020 harvest is in the home stretch.
The report released Monday afternoon indicates the national corn harvest is now 82 percent complete as of Sunday, up from last week?s 72 percent. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says analysts were expecting a slightly faster pace, however, this year?s harvest is well ahead of the 49 percent this time last year.
?There are several states across the Eastern Corn Belt and parts of the north where we have seen some slower (corn) harvest progress,? Rippey said. ?But in Michigan, we did see a nice advance from last week?s 34 percent of the corn harvested to 53 percent. We also saw a nice advance in Wisconsin from 40-to-55 percent harvested over the last week. Not quite as good in Ohio as only 41 percent of the corn harvested there as compared to 32 percent a week ago. It is a much wetter week as you move to the south and east.?
Rippey adds the soybean harvest pace also fell behind expectations. He says 87 percent of the beans have been harvested, below the 91 percent projection. This year?s pace, though, is far ahead of 2019?s pace of 71 percent.
?We see the states in the Midwest that have not reached the 80 percent mark for soybeans harvested include Michigan at 79 percent harvested, Ohio at 77 percent, and Missouri at 60 percent,? Rippey said. ?The caveat there is that a lot of the Missouri soybeans are double cropped, planted after winter wheat, and mature and are harvested much later ? even in a typical year.?
Iowa?s corn harvest is 87 percent complete, while only three percent of Iowa?s soybean crop remains to be harvested. Additionally, Iowa?s subsoil moisture condition rated 19 percent very short, 34 percent short, 46 percent adequate, and one percent surplus.
