King corn is looking a little weaker after the latest USDA Crop Condition report. The crop now shows 56% good to excellent a six-point drop from last week's 63% good to excellent report. The rise in Fair to Very Poor acres shows how dry weather and heat have sapped the current crop.
While silking began earlier than ever, and now 10% of the crop has silked, there's concern over this crop and the next 21 days - a key pollination time. Indiana has slid to 27% good to excellent, down 10 percentage points from last week - with 36% of the crop showing poor to very poor. Illinois is weak ad 37% good to excellent, and Missouri only rates 34% of the crop as good to excellent.
SLIDING DOWN: The 2012 corn crop is losing condition and hot, dry weather ahead won't help.
Meanwhile, Iowa at 68% good to excellent, Minnesota at 78% good to excellent and South Dakota at 71% good to excellent shows the variability of weather and this corn crop.
Soybeans: With 12% of the soybean crop blooming that upcoming hot, dry weather could be a concern for this crop too. The condition fell to 53% good to excellent from 56% last week. Indiana with 24% good to excellent, Illinois with 35% good to excellent and Missouri with 26% good to excellent shows the weather impact on the crop. Last year at this time, 65% of the soybean crop was showing good to excellent.
Winter wheat: With 98% of the winter wheat crop headed and 59% harvested, condition reports still have value. The crop is holding steady at 54% good to excellent, well above last year's 35% rating. However, Kansas shows only 40% good to excellent and 24% in poor to very poor condition. In Colorado, 29% of the crop is rated good to excellent.
Spring wheat: The crop shows 57% headed, which is well ahead of the five-year average. The crop is maintaining condition at 76% good to excellent, compared to the same rating last week. In fact the excellent portion crept up a bit in the latest review. That's ahead of the 69% good to excellent for this crop a year ago.
Cotton: With 36% of the crop squaring, plants are now setting bolls at an average pace. However, crop condition has slipped here too falling to 50% good to excellent from 53% a week ago. That's still better than last year when the crop as 27% good to excellent at this time. California cotton is looking good with 95% listed good to excellent, Arizona is right behind with 72% good to excellent. In the South, the good to excellent ratings are 68% for Arkansas, 61% for Georgia, 80% for Mississippi, 63% for North Carolina, 73% for South Carolina and 78% for Virginia (that Virginia number has no excellent cotton, on a lot of good cotton).
Peanuts: Crop condition slipped her falling to 69% from 75% last week. About 26% of the peanut crop is pegging, well ahead of schedule. The Georgia crop rates 71% good to excellent, Florida is at 73%, Virginia is at 85% and South Carolina is at 76%.
Rice: The crop is 16% headed and ahead of the five year average. Crop condition for rice is up to 81% good to excellent, that's a rise from 68% last week. Arkansas shows 30% of its rice is in Fair condition, and 59% in good to excellent condition.
You can check out the complete report.