Nebraska corn planting nearly complete; 78% of crop rated good to excellent

The Nebraska corn crop is 98 percent planted, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its crop progress report today. That's up from 91 percent last week, 91 percent last year and 92 percent for the five-year average.

Corn emerged stood at 78 percent, up from 57 percent last week, 45 percent last year and the five-year average of 49 percent. The quick and early planting pace is evident here, as this year's crop is 29 points ahead of the average.

USDA this week began its corn condition numbers as part of the update. While early, it does give a good indication of the overall crop condition. As of yesterday, 78 percent of Nebraska's corn crop was rated good to excellent, while 20 percent was listed as fair and only 2 percent poor to very poor. Since this year's crop is earlier than last year, there are no numbers available for comparison's sake.

The first corn condition numbers last year came out on May 29...and then Nebraska's crop was rated 64 percent good to excellent, 33 percent average and 3 percent poor to very poor.

Corn planting this year compared to the
five-year average.
Click for a larger image.

Nationally, 96 percent of the corn crop is planted, up from 87 percent last week, 75 percent last year and the five-year average of 81 percent. USDA said 73 percent of the country's crop is emerged, up from 56 percent last week, 38 percent last year and 48 percent for the five-year average.

The national crop condition numbers were 77 percent good to excellent condition, 20 percent as fair and only 3 percent as poor to very poor.

You can follow updates on the 2012 corn crop here and at the Nebraska Corn Board's Crop Progress Update page. The Crop Progress Update page includes Nebraska corn facts and figures, photos of crop progress from FFA chapters and more. It's updated every two weeks from planting to harvest.

This week's photos come from the Nebraska Corn Board's 2012 crop progress photo set at Flickr. The top one was submitted by a member of the Imperial FFA Chapter and the one below came from the Heartland FFA Chapter.