Harvest Season Comes To Dry Conclusion

USDA’s final weekly Crop Progress report for the 2021 season has Missouri’s corn and rice harvest complete, while cotton and soybeans are in-line with the five-year average.  The latest update indicates that soybean harvest is at 95 percent complete, while cotton harvest in the Bootheel is 97 percent complete.  Soybeans are two points behind a year ago, while cotton is three points ahead of last year.  94 percent of winter wheat is planted, mirroring last year’s pace and the five-year average.  86 percent of the crop has emerged, two points behind last year but five points ahead of normal.  62 percent of the crop is rated good to excellent, compared to four percent poor.

46 percent of Missouri pastures are going into the winter rated good or excellent.  A tenth of pastures are rated poor or very poor.  Nine percent of Missouri farmers reportedly lack adequate hay supply, compared to four percent with a surplus.  Five percent are considered short on stock water supply.  Rainfall was below normal with an average precipitation rate of 0.36″ of an inch last week.  12 percent of topsoil and 14 percent of topsoil were rated short or very short on moisture, compared to just one percent of subsoil with a reported surplus.

Temperatures were just above normal at 40.2°F.  6.2 days were suitable for fieldwork.