Rain, snow and cold weather may not stop your mail carrier, but it has certainly slowed spring planting progress so far. As of April 14, just 3% of this year’s U.S. corn crop is in the ground, per the latest USDA crop progress report out Monday afternoon.
The 2019 corn planting season did gain minimal forward momentum this past week, moving up from 2% complete two weeks ago. Progress so far is equivalent to last year’s pace, also at 3%, but slightly behind the five-year average and analyst estimates, both at 5%.
As could be reasonably expected, southern states are leading the charge so far, including Texas (57%), North Carolina (18%) and Tennessee (16%). Planters have begun rolling further north in states such as Kentucky (8%), Missouri (6%), Kansas (6%) and Illinois (1%).
Spring wheat planting progress is also behind schedule, with just 2% of acres in across the top six production states. The five-year average is 13%. States with the most progress so far include Idaho (18%) and Washington (17%).
As analysts anticipated, USDA did not alter its quality estimates for the 2018/19 U.S. winter wheat crop, holding steady at 60% rated in good-to-excellent condition. Another 31% of the crop is rated fair, with the remaining 9% rated poor or very poor (also unchanged from the prior week).
Other crops of note in the latest report include:
- Sorghum – 16% planted (up from 14% the prior week)
- Rice – 26% planted (up from 19% the prior week)
- Sugarbeets – 8% planted (up from 3% the prior week)
- Oats – 30% planted (up from 27% the prior week)
- Cotton – 7% planted (up from 6% the prior week)
Click here to read the latest USDA crop progress report in full.