Highlights
Tuesday, the USDA released its weekly planting progress report. Progress in corn planting is extremely behind last year’s record pace. Only 2% of the crop was planted last week, and 9% of the corn crop is already in the ground for the 18 primary producing states. This compares to a 5 year historical average of 23% in similar time periods, and 2010’s estimate of 46%.
The winter wheat crop condition continues to deteriorate each week. Of the 2011 crop, only 35% is in excellent or good condition, compared to 69% one year ago. In 2010, 6% of the winter wheat crop was in poor or very poor condition while 40% is in such condition at this time in 2011. Strong winter wheat-producing states have continued to miss critical rain storms.
Cotton planting progress is at 15%, which is on pace with the 5 year average for the week of 16%. Spring wheat planting is still well behind the 5 year historical average with only 6% of the 2011 crop planted compared to the historical average of 25% by the fourth week in April.
Corn prices increased 1.4% over the past week ending at $7.62 per bushel, soybeans were also up 3.3% to $13.89 per bushel, and wheat ended the week up 6.6%, closing at $8.26 per bushel. Grain prices increased substantially this past week on growing weather concerns across the globe. Portions of the Midwest have had twice the average precipitation over the past month, while some states have had the wettest April on record. Year-over-year corn prices are up 116.5%, soybeans are up 39.0%, and wheat is up 76.5%. Next week, we will look forward to reporting USDA estimates of emerged corn, and planted soybeans along with the usual planting progress.
The source article Agriculture Update: Crop Planting Delays and Winter Wheat Conditions Deteriorate Further - Seeking Alpha was published April 27, 2011 by Seeking Alpha .
