Tassels dotting Nebraska fields

A Twitter post from @cornfedfarmer confirmed that corn tassels were out in Central Nebraska on the Fourth of July.

Has tassels by the Fourth of July become the new 'standard'? Replacing the old 'knee high' saying that seemed off 20 years ago?

In either case, the U.S. Department of Agriculture today reported that 84 percent of Nebraska's crop was in good to excellent condition. That's two points up from last week and equal to two weeks ago. A year ago the crop was rated as 72 percent good to excellent.

That only puts only 12 percent of this year's crop in the fair category and 4 percent as poor to very poor. Overall, it is a very good looking crop in Nebraska.

USDA said 6 percent of the crop was silking, a couple of points behind the five-year average but ahead of last year.

For more details on the state's crop, be sure to check out the Nebraska Corn Board's Crop Progress Update.

Nationally, 71 percent of the crop is rated good to excellent - down a point from last week but still 9 points ahead of last year. For the full USDA report, click here.

This week's photo comes to the Nebraska Corn Board from the Heartland FFA Chapter. Click on the image for a larger photo.