November 24, 2009

 

One-third of US corn crop remains unharvested

 

 

Nearly one-third of the US corn crop remains in the fields as harvesting continues to drag on, the US Department of Agriculture said Monday (November 23) in its weekly crop progress report.

 

Producers will continue to work to bring the corn in after delays due to wetness. The soy harvest, meanwhile, is nearly complete, but the pace of winter wheat planting and emergence is still lagging, the USDA said.

  

The US corn harvest was 68 percent complete as of Sunday, up from 54 percent a week ago but down from the average of 94 percent, the USDA said. The progress was in line with trade expectations.

 

"Most of the progress was centred in and on the western and northern Plains, where Mother Nature provide a rather dry week," said Jon Michalscheck, analyst for Benson Quinn Commodities, in a note. "The eastern and south-central portions of the belt remained the most sluggish last week as they had to work around two major rain events. Nearly 4.1 billion bushels of corn are left to harvest."

 

Harvest continued to lag in Illinois, a key growing state, where 60 percent of the crop was combined, below the average of 98 percent, according to the USDA. In Indiana, 73 percent of corn was harvested, below the average of 96 percent.

 

Farther north, harvest in Wisconsin was 59 percent complete, below the average of 87 percent, the USDA said. In Minnesota, 66 percent of the corn was harvested, below the average of 96 percent.

 

The delays in Illinois and Wisconsin could provide "a little bit of support" to Chicago Board of Trade corn futures, said Bill Biedermann, senior vice president at Allendale. However, "at this point, we're not really hearing of any substantial yield loss," he said.

 

In Illinois, producers are looking at approximately eight days of field work to wrap up their harvest, Biedermann said. The 40 percent of the state's crop still in the fields represents about 826 million bushels, he said.

 

Wetness in the Midwest has delayed the corn and the soy harvests this year and raised worries about the potential for yield and quality problems. CME Group Inc. (CME), parent company of CBOT, said last week it would announce new corn contract specifications regarding vomitoxin, a fungal byproduct, but has not made an announcement yet.

 

Producers had harvested 94 percent of their soy as of Sunday, up from 89 percent last week and below the average of 97 percent, the USDA said. That was within trade expectations of about 92 percent to 98 percent.

 

"The bottom line is there's not a lot of crop at risk at this point," Biedermann said.

 

Harvest is wrapping up in Iowa, where 98 percent of the crop was combined, and in Indiana, where 97 percent was combined, the USDA said. Iowa's harvest would normally be finished by now, while Indiana's would be 98 percent complete. In Illinois, soy was 95 percent harvested, below the average of 99 percent.

 

In Missouri, 87 percent of soy was harvested, below the average of 94 percent, according to the USDA. The soy in Arkansas was 91 percent harvested, below the average of 96 percent.

 

"Most of all the yields we hear continue to be good," Biedermann said.

 

US winter wheat was 84 percent emerged as of Sunday, up from 77 percent last week and below the average of 90 percent, according to the USDA. Last year at this time, 91 percent of the crop had emerged.

 

Emergence is lagging in Midwest soft red winter wheat states, where planting was delayed by wetness and the slow soy harvest. Many producers plant SRW wheat after soy.

 

The crop was 67 percent emerged in Illinois, below the average of 97 percent, and 44 percent emerged in Missouri, below the average of 81 percent, according to the USDA. In Ohio, the top SRW wheat-producing state, the crop was 81 percent emerged, below the average of 96 percent.

 

Emergence in Kansas, the top hard red winter wheat-producing state, was 88 percent, below the average of 96 percent, the USDA said. In Oklahoma, the crop was 85 percent emerged, below the average of 92 percent.

 

HRW wheat is used to make bread and traded on the Kansas City Board of Trade. SRW wheat, used to make pastries and snack foods, is traded on the CBOT.

 

Planting made only minimal progress last week as it trudged toward completion. The crop was 93 percent seeded as of Sunday, up from 90 percent a week earlier and below the average of 97 percent.

 

The USDA kept its good-to-excellent rating for winter wheat unchanged from last week at 64 percent, although there was slight movement within the categories. A year ago, the crop was rated 65 percent good to excellent.