October 10, 2018
By Bill Novak
Rain almost every day kept farmers out of fields (click here) in Wisconsin last week, preventing fall harvest work to move along.
The crop report from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service for the week ending Oct. 7 said only 2.0 days out of 7.0 total were suitable for field work across the state, with wet soil conditions preventing farmers from getting into fields.
"Too much rain has halted all field activities," a Barron County report said. "Grain harvest has switched to corn because the soybeans are not drying down."...
Things changed a bit this week. There isn't a description of the condition of the harvest though, just percentages. I always expect that as crops remained in the field after maturity, the quality of the grains diminished. So, the percentages are increasing, but, there is no report on the quality.
November 5, 2018
By Ben Potter
...“Wet weather (click here) in the central and eastern Midwest last week slowed harvest a little, with today’s progress in line with my expectations,” says Farm Futures senior grain market analyst Bryce Knorr. “Drier weather should get combines moving again after one more storm this week.”
A state-by-state look reveals that six of the top 18 production states are at least 90% complete with the 2018 corn harvest, including Illinois (93%), Kentucky (92%), Missouri (92%), North Carolina (98%), Tennessee (96%) and Texas (90%). By now, every state has passed the halfway mark but North Dakota (49%).
This year’s soybean harvest has reached 83% complete, meantime, up from 72% a week ago. Progress is still a bit behind 2017’s pace and the five-year average, both at 89%. As with corn, six of the top 18 production states are at least 90% complete, including Illinois (92%), Louisiana (95%), Minnesota (92%), Mississippi (92%), Nebraska (90%) and South Dakota (92%). North Carolina, with current progress of 45%, is the only top production state that hasn’t yet reached the halfway point....
