Harvest progressing slowly but 82% of Nebraska corn is good to excellent

Thirteen percent of Nebraska's corn was harvested as of Oct. 18, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in it's weekly crop progress report today.

That's up only 3 points from last weeks' 10 percent harvested -- and behind last year's 17 percent harvested at this point. The five-year average is 34 percent harvested and certainly shows what the cool, wet weather has done to slow things down this year -- not only in keeping farmers out of the field but slowing the natural drying process of the grain.

Nationally, 17 percent of the crop is in the bin, up only 4 points from last week. A year ago, 28 percent of the crop was in the bin -- and the five-year average is 46 percent.

The nation's soybean crop is only 30 percent harvested (it's 55 percent in Nebraska), so there are some long days ahead there, too. The five-year average this this week is 72 percent harvested (75 percent in Nebraska).

Crop conditions remain very high. In Nebraska, 82 percent of the corn crop was rated by USDA to be in good to excellent condition. Nationally, that figure is 70 percent, the same as two weeks ago. This is still high especially considering the frost/snow/cold the crop has endured over the last two weeks. (A year ago, 62 percent of the nation's corn crop was rated good to excellent.)

As for crop maturity, USDA said 78 percent of Nebraska's crop was mature, compared to last year's 82 percent and the five-year average of 94 percent. Nationally, 83 percent of the crop was mature, compared to 92 percent last year and the five-year average of 97 percent.