Nebraska corn rated 75 percent good to excellent

The Nebraska corn crop is rated 75 percent good to excellent, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its crop progress report yesterday. It pegged 21 percent of the crop as fair and only 4 percent as poor. None was rated very poor.

A year ago, the crop was rated 73 percent good to excellent, with 25 percent being fair and only 2 percent rated poor.

Emergence hit 100 percent in the last week, which is not a surprise considering the early planting and decent weather. The five-year average for emergence in Nebraska is 90 percent – but last year only 84 percent of the crop had emerged by this time.

According to the Nebraska Corn Board's Crop Progress Update page, sidedressing fertilizer and spraying were the main activities in the fields this week.
 
Nationally, 97 percent of the crop is emerged, up from 83 percent for the average and only 75 percent last year. The national crop condition ratings came in at 72 percent good to excellent, 23 percent fair and 5 percent poor to very poor. A year ago ratings stood at 67 percent good to excellent, 27 percent fair and 6 percent poor to very poor.

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 Heartland FFA Chapter and the one below came from the SEM FFA Chapter.