Crop Progress: Corn harvest crosses the halfway mark

Soybean harvest is now 80% complete

Ben Potter, Senior editor

October 24, 2022

2 Min Read
Combine harvesting corn
Getty/iStockphoto

USDA’s new crop progress report, out Monday afternoon and covering the week through October 23, showed the 2022 soybean harvest continues to outpace corn’s progress so far. Both crops are enjoying progress that has been much faster than their respective five-year averages. USDA also provided additional crop data on a bevy of other crops in today’s report.

Nearly all (97%) of this year’s corn crop is fully mature, up from 94% last week and matching the prior five-year average. Harvest progress moved from 45% a week ago up to 61% through Sunday. That’s modestly behind 2021’s pace of 64% but still well ahead of the prior five-year average of 52%. Of the top 18 production states, Pennsylvania (20%) and Wisconsin (22%) still have the farthest way to go.

With harvest past the halfway mark for both corn and soybeans, USDA won’t be providing additional quality ratings updates. Last week, the agency noted that 53% of the corn crop was rated in good-to-excellent condition, and 57% of the soybean crop was rated in good-to-excellent condition.

This year’s soybean harvest moved from 63% last week up to 80% through Sunday. That puts the 2022 harvest well ahead of last year’s pace of 71% and the prior five-year average of 67%. None of the top 18 production states are 100% complete, but Louisiana (96%) and Minnesota (95%) are very close.

Other regional harvests of note include:

  • Sunflowers – 35%, up from 22% last week

  • Sugarbeets – 80%, up from 67% last week

  • Sorghum – 67%, up from 57% last week

  • Cotton – 45%, up from 37% last week

  • Rice – 94%, up from 89% last week

Winter wheat planting progress moved from 69% a week ago up to 79% through October 23. That was a bit slower than analysts were anticipating, with an average trade guess of 81% prior to today’s report. That puts the 2022/23 crop slightly behind last year’s pace of 79% but identical to the prior five-year average.

Click here to see more data from the latest USDA crop progress report.

About the Author(s)

Ben Potter

Senior editor, Farm Futures

Senior Editor Ben Potter brings two decades of professional agricultural communications and journalism experience to Farm Futures. He began working in the industry in the highly specific world of southern row crop production. Since that time, he has expanded his knowledge to cover a broad range of topics relevant to agriculture, including agronomy, machinery, technology, business, marketing, politics and weather. He has won several writing awards from the American Agricultural Editors Association, most recently on two features about drones and farmers who operate distilleries as a side business. Ben is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

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