A record pace for some spring seeding

Farm and Ranch May 4, 2010 While recent rains in the Pacific Northwest may have interrupted some spring planting, on a national level crops are going in the ground at a blistering pace. Recall last year’s slow corn planting? USDA meteorologist Mark Brusberg says that is not the case this year.

Brusberg: “Nationally 68% of the corn crop is planted and that compares with 32% last year and the five year average pace of 40%.”

And that 68 percent planted;

Brusberg: “Is the fastest pace that we have on record.”

And that is five percentage points faster than the previous record from 2004.

Sixty percent of the U.S. spring wheat crop has been planted. That compares to just 43 percent at this time last year and 47 percent for the five year average. Seeding is lagging in Idaho where 64 percent of the spring wheat has been seeded compared to the five year average of 70 percent. At 92 percent seeded, Washington spring wheat planting is ten points above average.

As for the U.S. winter wheat crop, Mark Brusberg says there was just a slight drop in the ratings this past week.

Brusberg: “Winter wheat is still in pretty good condition. They dropped one percentage point out of the good to excellent range. They are 68% good to excellent. Last week they were 69. The five year average is 50%. So they are doing extremely well.”

All northwest states saw an improvement in good to excellent ratings for winter wheat over the past week.

Heading of the 2010 winter wheat crop at 27 percent is running a few points ahead of average.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.

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