The USDA traditionally shuts down its weekly Crop Progress report at the end of November because the growing season is over and the fall harvest is all but complete in most states. But this year, the USDA will continue to monitor the harvest, which is weeks later than usual, into December.
Nearly a quarter of the corn crop, potentially 3.3 billion bushels, was still in the field at the start of this week, according to the report, which is issued on the first workday of the week. Nine percent of soybeans also remained to be harvested — possibly as much as 320 million bushels.
“Due to delays in harvest progress this season,” said the USDA, the National Agricultural Statistics Service will issue Crop Progress “beyond the last currently scheduled date of November 25. NASS will evaluate the harvest progress for all crops each week to determine how long to continue the report.”
Storms and cold weather have slowed the harvest of corn and soybean crops, which matured later than usual this year because the rainiest spring in a quarter-century prolonged the planting season. Growers harvested 10 percent of the corn crop, about 8 million acres, last week. They had more than 19 million acres to go at the start of this week. Usually, 92 percent of the crop is harvested by the third week of November instead of this year’s 76 percent.