Crop progress?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture came out with its latest crop progress report today -- although progress is certainly open for debate, especially if you live in western Nebraska and got socked with a another foot of snow last week.

USDA said 18 percent of Nebraska's corn crop was harvested as of Nov. 1 -- only a 3 point bump from last week's 15 percent. A year ago at this time, farmers were one-third done. The five year average is 62 percent harvested.

While moving from 15 to 18 percent harvested is progress, it is not the 15-20 point jump we would see during a good week. In looking back to last year, we were 18 percent completed by Oct. 19, but then reeled off a solid couple of weeks late in October and early in November.

Perhaps we'll see a good run this week should the dry forecast stay in place.

Nationally, USDA said 25 percent of the crop was in the bin -- only a 5 point improvement from last week. Last year, the 53 percent of the crop was harvested already, and the five-year average is 71 percent complete.

A week from today, USDA will release its next crop production report. It will be interesting to see how October's weather plays into the numbers. Crop conditions remain generally above last year and yield reports from the field have been quite high.

For a couple of harvest videos (shot in the yield via mobile phones), check out the links below courtesy of a couple of Nebraska farmers using Twitter and TwitVid.

The first is from Mark McHargue (@hogs_r_us on Twitter). He posted this video of twin-row corn being harvested. He was seeing yields of 270-280 bushels per acre in the part of the field where he was recording.


The second is from Ryan Weeks (@HuskerFarm), who posted this video. It shows some irrigated land yielding about 250 bu. per acre and the field as a whole around 190. Weeks said he recorded the video on his Blackberry Tour.