USDA Crop Progress - Corn Condition 72% Good to Excellent; Soybeans 93% Planted, 70% Good to Excellent as of June 16

OMAHA (DTN) -- Good-to-excellent condition ratings for both corn and soybeans dropped 2 percentage points last week, but ratings for both crops remain well above last year, USDA NASS reported in its weekly Crop Progress on Monday.

Development of both crops continues to run slightly ahead of normal, and the U.S. winter wheat harvest is also running ahead of its average pace, NASS said.

CORN

-- Crop development: 93% of corn had emerged as of Sunday, 2 points behind last year's 95% but 1 point ahead of the five-year average of 92%.

-- Crop condition: NASS estimated that 72% of the crop was in good-to-excellent condition, down 2 points from 74% the previous week but well ahead of last year's 55%. Five percent of the crop was rated very poor to poor, unchanged from the previous week and lower than 12% last year. "Seventy-four percent of the corn crop in Iowa is considered good to excellent, Illinois is at 65% and Minnesota is at 71% good to excellent," noted DTN Lead Analyst Todd Hultman.

SOYBEANS

-- Planting progress: Soybean planting moved ahead 6 points last week to reach 93% complete as of Sunday. That was 4 percentage points behind last year's 97% but 2 percentage points ahead of the five-year average of 91%.

-- Crop development: 82% of soybeans had emerged as of Sunday, 8 points behind last year's 90% but 3 points ahead of the five-year average of 79%.

-- Crop condition: NASS estimated that 70% of soybeans that had emerged were in good-to-excellent condition, down 2 points from 72% the previous week but well above 54% last year. "The good-to-excellent soybean rating was 61% in Illinois, 74% in Iowa and 79% in Nebraska," Hultman said.

WINTER WHEAT

-- Crop development: 94% of winter wheat was headed as of Sunday. That was 1 point ahead of 93% at this time last year and 3 points ahead of the five-year average of 91%.

-- Harvest progress: Harvest picked up speed last week, moving ahead 15 percentage points to reach 27% complete nationwide as of Sunday. That was 14 points ahead of last year's 13% and 13 points ahead of the five-year average pace of 14%. "As usual, the winter wheat harvest is making the quickest progress in Southern states, with Texas 63% harvested, Oklahoma 80% harvested and Arkansas at 68%," noted DTN Senior Analyst Dana Mantini. "Kansas is now at 28% harvested."

-- Crop condition: 49% of the crop remaining in fields was rated in good-to-excellent condition, up 2 points from 47% the previous week and still up considerably from 38% a year ago.

SPRING WHEAT

-- Crop development: 95% of spring wheat had emerged, 1 point behind 96% last year but 2 points ahead of the five-year average of 93%. Four percent of the crop was headed, 4 points behind 8% last year and 3 points behind the five-year average of 7%.

-- Crop condition: NASS estimated that 76% of the crop was in good-to-excellent condition nationwide, up 4 points from 72% the previous week. That is still ahead of last year's rating of 51% good to excellent. "Eighty-two percent of spring wheat in North Dakota is rated in good-to-excellent condition, and 83% of the Minnesota crop is rated good to excellent," Mantini said.

THE WEEK AHEAD IN WEATHER

The Western Corn Belt and Upper Midwest will see continued chances of rain and severe weather this week, while the Eastern Corn Belt will be blasted by heat, according to DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick.

"It's going to be a stagnant weather pattern this week," Baranick said. "A front has parked itself from about Nebraska to Wisconsin, and it will waffle around that region and a little north throughout the week. Daily showers and thunderstorms and some severe weather are expected. But widespread heavy amounts of rain are going to fall across there and points a bit farther north throughout the week.

"South of the front, it will be very hot and humid, and there are heat advisories and warnings posted for most of the Eastern Corn Belt. Daytime highs will be consistently in the 90s Fahrenheit and approaching 100 degrees F in some spots just about every day. There are some cloud cover and pop-up showers that will occur in the heat, putting a damper on high temperatures at times and bringing a little soil moisture around, but they won't have a very large effect on the heat stress that will be piling up. The good news is that most areas here have good soil moisture from a very active spring. But that tends to run out, and we'll need more rain quickly.

"The front will finally make a move south and especially east this weekend, and we'll bring in some milder air and chances for showers across the Corn Belt, maybe down into the Delta and Southeast by early next week as well."

National Crop Progress Summary
	This	Last	Last	5-Year
	Week	Week	Year	Avg.
Corn Emerged	93	85	95	92
Soybeans Planted	93	87	97	91
Soybeans Emerged	82	70	90	79
Winter Wheat Headed	94	89	93	91
Winter Wheat Harvested	27	12	13	14
Spring Wheat Emerged	95	87	96	93
Spring Wheat Headed	4	NA	8	7
Cotton Planted	90	80	87	91
Cotton Squaring	22	14	17	18
Cotton Setting Bolls	6	NA	2	3
Sorghum Planted	80	65	70	75
Sorghum Headed	15	NA	14	15
Oats Emerged	96	92	97	96
Oats Headed	50	41	54	45
Barley Emerged	88	83	93	94
Barley Headed	4	NA	6	8
Rice Emerged	97	93	98	96
Rice Headed	6	NA	5	4

**

National Crop Condition Summary
(VP=Very Poor; P=Poor; F=Fair; G=Good; E=Excellent)
	This Week						Last Week						Last Year
	VP	P	F	G	E		VP	P	F	G	E		VP	P	F	G	E
Corn	1	4	23	57	15		1	4	21	58	16		3	9	33	47	8
Soybeans	1	4	25	58	12		1	3	24	60	12		3	9	34	47	7
Winter Wheat	6	11	34	40	9		6	13	34	39	8		11	18	33	32	6
Spring Wheat	1	3	20	68	8		-	3	25	67	5		2	10	37	48	3
Sorghum	2	5	35	51	7		2	5	37	49	7		2	5	33	53	7
Cotton	2	11	33	47	7		2	6	36	49	7		7	13	33	41	6
Rice	1	2	14	67	16		1	2	15	68	14		-	1	29	56	14
Oat	6	5	22	57	10		6	4	20	60	10		7	9	39	42	3
Barley	-	1	24	72	3		-	1	23	74	2		1	7	42	48	2