The Fastline Blog

Having just 21 percent of the Nation’s corn crop mature on September 20, as data released on Monday afternoon showed, is truly an amazing statistic. The five-year average for corn maturity on September 6 is 23 percent, so you can make the case that the national corn crop this year is just over two weeks late in maturing. We are now beyond the normal first frost dates of the fall season for parts of North Dakota, and yet none of the corn crop was rated mature (and thus safe from frost) in this week’s report for that state. We are in a lot better shape with regards to the soybean crop. At 40 percent dropping leaves nationally this week, that is well behind the five-year average of 58 percent but is a good distance faster than late-maturing crop years like 1993 and 1996. The five-year average for September 13 is for the national soybean crop to be 36 percent dropping leaves, so based on that this year’s soybean crop is less than a week behind schedule in maturing. At least we have really been pushing the crops in the northern Plains and northwestern Corn Belt (where the first fall frost is normally seen) quickly towards maturity so far this month, with temperatures there for the first three weeks of September running two to more than six degrees above normal. That will continue for the rest of this month, with temperatures looking to average above (or, at times, well-above) normal during that time period. In the near term the biggest weather concern continues to be in regards to Delta crops, where it has been way too wet as of late and one can find reports of soybeans sprouting in the pods due to all of the wet weather. It will continue to rain in that area throughout this work-week, but welcome dry weather is still in the forecast for the weekend and into at least the first part of next week. The Corn Belt has broken a long dry spell with this week’s rain; that area also should dry out for the weekend and into early next week to allow for some early harvesting to take place.

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