Nebraska corn rated 62 percent good to excellent

The Nebraska corn crop was rated 62 percent good to excellent as of June 17, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its crop progress report today. It pegged 31 percent of the crop as fair and 7 percent as poor. None was rated very poor, which is positive.

2012 corn crop - Imperial FFA Chapter

About a year ago, Nebraska's crop was rated 76 percent good to excellent, with 19 percent being fair and only 5 percent rated poor to very poor.

The dry weather we had been experiencing was recently relieved by rain in many parts of the state. It will be interesting to see how that plays out with this week's heat, but overall most corn is looking pretty good.

2011 corn crop - Imperial FFA chapter

This year's crop is well ahead of last year's, as shown in the to photos on the right – both were taken on the same day, just a year a part. The top one was taken by a member of the Imperial FFA chapter this year, while the one below it was taken by a member of the same chapter last year.

Nationally, 63 percent of the crop was rated good to excellent, 28 percent fair and 9 percent poor to very poor. A year ago ratings stood at 70 percent good to excellent, 23 percent fair and 7 percent poor to very poor.

This week's photos come from the Nebraska Corn Board's 2012 crop progress photo set at Flickr, except the one labeled 2011. This week's photos were taken by the Imperial FFA Chapter.