CHICAGO: The US corn harvest advanced in the latest week, the soybean harvest got under way, and corn condition ratings improved following rain showers in the Midwest, the US Department of Agriculture and state reports said on Monday.
The US corn harvest was 7 percent complete as of Sunday, up from 4 percent a week earlier but behind the five-year average of 16 percent.
In its first US soybean harvest figure for 2013, the USDA reported 3 percent was done, lagging the five-year average of 9 percent. The soybean harvest was 1 percent complete in both Iowa and Illinois, typically the two largest producers.
Analysts expected USDA to show the corn harvest at 11 percent complete and the soybean harvest at 3 percent complete, according to a Reuters poll.
The slow start to harvest follows widespread planting delays in the Corn Belt due to excessive rains last spring.
The USDA rated 50 percent of the soybean crop in good to excellent condition as of Sunday, unchanged from the previous week. However, 55 percent of the corn was rated good to excellent, up from 53 a week earlier.
"The corn ratings were a bit of a surprise because usually, as the crop is maturing, the condition ratings are declining. It tells you ... you have to be prepared for higher yields," said Don Roose, president of US Commodities in West Des Moines, Iowa.
"That's what we're hearing across the Corn Belt so far - yields better to much better in some areas than people had thought," Roose said.
Forty percent of the corn crop was mature, compared with the five-year average of 55 percent.
For soybeans, 47 percent of the crop was dropping leaves, a sign of maturity, compared with the five-year average of 56 percent.
Rains that crossed the Midwest last week were likely to help some late-planted soybeans and recharge soil moisture for farmers planting winter wheat. Nearly 57 percent of the Midwest was considered "abnormally dry" as of Sept. 17, the latest weekly US Drought Monitor issued by state and federal climate experts showed.
"Rainfall was much needed," the Indiana field office of the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service said in its report. "Some very late soybeans are still green, but shorter days will hasten their leaf drop," the report said.
In Iowa, the showers were accompanied by high winds and hail in 19 counties from southwest into east-central Iowa.
WINTER WHEAT PLANTING ADVANCES
The harvest of spring wheat was 93 percent complete in the northern Plains and the Pacific Northwest, matching the five-year average.
The US winter wheat crop was 23 percent planted, up from 12 percent a week earlier and in line with the five-year average of 24 percent.
Hard red winter wheat, the biggest US wheat class, is produced in the southern and central US Plains, while soft red winter wheat is grown in the Midwest and the mid-South.
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