Nebraska corn: 84 percent good to excellent

The Nebraska corn crop remains in outstanding condition - with the crop shooting upwards over the past week with some good heat and moisture.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said today that 84 percent of Nebraska's crop is in good to excellent condition. That's 16 points ahead of last year's 68 percent good to excellent - and demonstrates the good spring and start for this year's crop.

It won't be long and detasseling crews will be working hard on all the seed corn acres across the state.

As for the rest of the state's crop, 13 percent was rated fair and 3 percent poor to very poor.

Acres that were hailed - which includes quite a few from storms over the last two weeks - would be in these lower categories. For more information - and weather details - be sure to check out the Nebraska Corn Board's Crop Progress Update.

Nationally, 67 percent of the crop is in good to excellent condition, 27 percent is fair and 6 percent is poor to very poor. A year ago, only 57 percent of the crop was considered good to excellent, 33 percent was fair and 10 percent was poor to very poor. Last year's crop condition improved heading into fall, however, and we saw a pretty good crop.

For USDA's full report, click here.

This week's photo was provided to the Nebraska Corn Board by the Blue Hill FFA Chapter. It shows the corn canopy closing, which happened quickly over the last week with the good growing conditions.