Another Dry Week For Missouri Crops

With the exception of a rain gauge in Glasgow, farmland across Missouri continues to hurt for rain, and that’s showing once again in the weekly Crop Progress report from USDA.  The weekly update has another 12 percent of Missouri pastures tumbling into poor or very poor condition, bringing the total up to 47 percent.  Just 20 percent of fields are listed in good condition.  77 percent of alfalfa has received its first cutting and 44 percent of other hay has been cut, both well ahead of average pace.  62 percent of Missouri farmers lack adequate hay supply, while 44 percent of farms are lacking adequate stock water.

46 percent of corn fields are rated good to excellent, down nine points from a week ago.  16 percent are in poor or very poor shape, an increase of two points.  96 percent of the state’s corn has emerged.  48 percent of soybean fields are in good to excellent shape, a three-point drop from last week, while 14 percent of fields remain poor or very poor.  91 percent of Missouri’s beans are planted, 34 points ahead of average, with 80 percent emerged.

Winter wheat harvest has begun with one percent in the bin.  That’s in line with last year’s progress as well as the five-year average.  57 percent of fields are in good to excellent condition against nine percent poor or very poor.

Bootheel crops are also showing wear from the dry conditions.  69 percent of cotton is rated good to excellent, down three points, while one percent of fields have fallen into poor condition.  60 percent of rice fields are in good or excellent shape, down five points, with eight percent rated poor.  Eight percent of the region’s cotton is squaring, double the normal pace and six points better than a year ago.

With only a third of an inch of rain falling on average around Missouri last week, just 25 percent of topsoil and 31 percent of subsoil have adequate moisture.  Temperatures were 5.3 degrees above normal at 73.8°F.  An average of 6.7 days were suitable for fieldwork.