USDA Crop Progress - 5% of Corn, 4% of Soybeans Left to Harvest; HRW Wheat Rated 44% Good to Excellent as of Nov. 10

OMAHA (DTN) -- Widespread rains last week helped boost winter wheat condition but slowed completion of the U.S. corn and soybean harvests, USDA NASS reported in its weekly Crop Progress report on Tuesday. The report, which is normally released on Mondays, was delayed this week by the Veterans Day holiday.

CORN

-- Harvest progress: Corn harvest inched ahead 4 percentage points nationally last week to reach 95% complete as of Sunday. That was still 9 points ahead of last year's 86% and 11 points ahead of the five-year average of 52%. Wisconsin farmers still had about 11% of corn left to harvest. An estimated 10% of North Dakota's corn was left to harvest. Missouri had 7% left to harvest. Indiana, Nebraska and South Dakota all had about 6% left to harvest. Iowa had 5% left to harvest, Ohio had 4% left, Illinois had 3% left and Minnesota had 2% left.

SOYBEANS

-- Harvest progress: Soybean harvest moved ahead 2 percentage points to reach 96% complete as of Sunday. That was 2 points ahead of last year's 94% and 5 points ahead of the five-year average of 91%. Missouri had 10% of its soybean crop left to harvest. Indiana had 4% left to harvest. Illinois and Michigan had 3% left to harvest, and Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin had 1% left to harvest.

WINTER WHEAT

-- Planting progress: Winter wheat planting moved ahead by another 4 points to reach 91% complete nationwide as of Sunday, 1 point behind last year's 92% and 2 points behind the five-year average of 93%. Oklahoma was still significantly behind its average pace at 79% planted versus the state's five-year average of 93%. Texas was also slightly behind average at 81% planted versus the state's average of 85%. Top winter-wheat-producer Kansas' crop was 97% planted, 1 point ahead of the state's average of 96%.

-- Crop development: An estimated 76% of winter wheat had emerged as of Sunday, 3 points behind both last year and the five-year average of 79%. Top winter-wheat-producer Kansas' crop was 84% emerged, 3 points ahead of the state's average of 81%. Oklahoma's crop was 63% emerged, 17 points behind the state's five-year average of 80%. South Dakota's crop, at 75% emerged, was 15 points behind the state's average of 90%. Nebraska's winter wheat crop was also lagging, with emergence estimated at 90% as of Sunday, 7 points behind the state's average of 97%.

-- Crop condition: An estimated 44% of winter wheat that had emerged was in good-to-excellent condition, up another 3 points from 41% the previous week. That trails last year's rating of 47% good to excellent by just 3 percentage points. Eighteen percent of the crop was rated very poor to poor, a 5-percentage-point improvement from 23% the previous week.

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THE WEEK AHEAD IN WEATHER

Systems will bring scattered, mostly light showers to some parts of the country this week with a much larger system poised to bring more moisture and much colder air to the middle of the country next week, according to DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick.

"A lot of rain has fallen recently across the winter-wheat-growing areas of the country," Baranick said. "That's good news for them, as much of these areas have been in drought recently. Above-normal temperatures will help wheat stay more active and improve conditions in a lot of areas. Coloradoans may not feel that way with the 1-2 feet of snow that fell last week over large parts of the state, though. That will take a while to melt off.

"This week is a little quieter. A system will be spreading showers across the country through Thursday. Many areas will see light rain or nothing at all, but some areas in the Southeast could see some heavier amounts. Drought in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee could benefit the most.

"Another system moves into the West late this week. It will spin off a smaller low-pressure system into the Northern Plains and southern Canada. Some isolated to scattered showers could occur there. But next week's weather is bound to be more dramatic, as a large system is poised to deepen over the middle of the country. That could significantly increase soil moisture again and bring in some much colder air."

National Crop Progress Summary
	This	Last	Last	5-Year
	Week	Week	Year	Avg.
Corn Harvested	95	91	86	84
Soybeans Harvested	96	94	94	91
Winter Wheat Planted	91	87	92	93
Winter Wheat Emerged	76	66	79	79
Cotton Harvested	71	63	64	63
Sorghum Harvested	91	85	90	89

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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
Winter Wheat	6	12	38	38	6		8	15	36	35	6		7	10	36	39	8