US corn harvesting rate worst in five years

16 October 2019, 10:00, Grain

As of October 13, only 22% of the US corn had been harvested, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. By the same date last year, the crop was harvested from 38% of the area.

On the 5-year average, the corn crop at the reporting date was harvested from 36% of the area.

Corn condition at the reporting date was as followed:

excellent — 11% of plantings (21% in the comparative period of 2018);
good — 44% (47%);
fair — 30% (20%);
poor — 11% (8%);
very poor — 4% (equals the previous year's indicator).

Karen Braun, Global Agriculture Columnist at Thomson Reuters, writes on Twitter that in the United States the corn crop was harvested in the reporting period on the minimum area over 5 years, but a lower result was received in 2009 when American farmers harvested only 14%.

As a reminder, the October USDA report made corn prices plummet. By results of trades on October 10 on CBOT, corn quotations fell sharply to USD 149.7 per ton against USD 155.2 per ton at previous trading sessions.