Nebraska corn 76% good to excellent

Nebraska's corn crop is rated 76 percent good to excellent, with 19 percent fair and only 5 percent poor to very poor, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today. The top figure is up 3 points from two weeks ago.

Nationally, USDA said 70 percent of the crop is in good to excellent condition, with 23 percent fair and 7 percent poor to very poor. A week ago those figures were 69, 25 and 6 percent, respectively. A year ago they were 75, 18 and 7 percent, respectively.

Overall, the crop here in Nebraska and across the country is in good shape. Of course some acres were lost to flooding along the Missouri, but USDA had included some estimates of that in its last crop production report. It will be interesting to see how that plays out as the water moves south.

While all of Nebraska's corn has emerged, there were still a few acres to emerge across the country -- Pennsylvania, for example, was only 76 percent emerged. Nationally, that figure stood at 97 percent, just 2 points behind the five-year average.

This week's photo comes from the Norris FFA Chapter and shows corn off to a great start. Many acres across the state look just like this, while some acres show even taller plants that are quickly closing the canopy. For more photos, be sure to check out the Nebraska Corn Board's 2011 crop progress photo set on Flickr.

For more details of Nebraska's corn crop, visit the Corn Board's Crop Progress Update page.