Crop Progress: Corn 76% Planted, Soybeans 67% Planted, Winter Wheat Rated 27% Good to Excellent as of May 17

This article was originally published at 3:05 p.m. CDT on Monday, May 18. It was last updated with additional information at 3:57 p.m. CDT on Monday, May 18.

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OMAHA (DTN) — U.S. corn planting continues to run ahead of its five-year average while holding steady with last year’s pace, according to USDA NASS’s weekly Crop Progress report released on Monday.

Multiple storm systems are expected to bring widespread rainfall, severe weather, flooding concerns and colder temperatures to much of the country this week, according to DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick.

CORN

— Planting progress: 76% of corn was planted nationwide as of Sunday, steady with last year’s pace and 6 points ahead of the five-year average of 70%. Tennessee was the furthest ahead at 96% complete as of Sunday. That was followed by North Carolina at 94% complete. Illinois and Indiana are both 75% and 67% planted, respectively.

— Crop development: 39% of corn had emerged as of Sunday, 8 points behind last year’s 39% and 2 points ahead of the five-year average of 37%.

SOYBEANS

— Planting progress: An estimated 67% of intended soybean acreage was planted as of Sunday, 4 points ahead of last year at this time and 14 points ahead of the five-year average of 53%. Illinois’ soybeans are 74% planted, 9 points ahead of last year and 11 points ahead of the five-year average of 63%. Indiana was also ahead of average at 67% planted, 11 points ahead of last year’s pace and 17 points ahead of the five-year average.

— Crop development: 32% of soybeans had emerged as of Sunday, equal to last year’s pace and 9 points ahead of the five-year average of 23%.

WINTER WHEAT

— Crop condition: An estimated 43% of winter wheat was rated poor to very poor as of May 17, up 25 percentage points from 18% a year ago, according to NASS.

— Crop development: 71% of winter wheat was headed nationwide as of Sunday. That’s 9 percentage points ahead of last year’s 62% and 13 percentage points ahead of the five-year average of 58%. Top winter-wheat-producer Kansas’ crop was 93% headed, 11 points ahead of last year at this time and 21 points ahead of the five-year average.

SPRING WHEAT

— Planting progress: 73% of the crop was planted nationwide as of May 17, 7 percentage points behind last year’s pace of 80% and 7 percentage points ahead of the five-year average of 66%. Planting in South Dakota and Washington is 96% complete in both states.

— Crop development: 39% of spring wheat was emerged as of Sunday, 3 percentage points behind last year’s pace of 42% and 5 percentage points ahead of the five-year average of 34%.

THE WEEK AHEAD IN WEATHER

Much of the country is expected to see an active weather pattern this week, with multiple storm systems bringing heavy rain, severe weather, flooding concerns and colder air, according to DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick.

“This is going to be a big week of weather across much of the country,” Baranick said. “We had some major storms and heavy rain bog things down across the western Corn Belt over the weekend, and some scattered showers causing some issues in the eastern Corn Belt as well, but we’ve got one more big storm that will push through the Central Plains into the Midwest on Monday and Tuesday. Widespread areas of heavy rain and severe weather are expected with this system. We could see more flooding problems as well, especially where heavy rain overlaps from the weekend.

“But the front to the system will be more important. That will slowly drag southward through the country this week, stalling out from Texas somewhere into the Southeast. Scattered showers and thunderstorms will continue there through at least this weekend if not well into next week as some models suggest. That is good news for these drought areas across the south, getting some good rain to fall and increase soil moisture and reduce that long-standing drought. And that won’t be the only thing going on, either.

“Another system will move across the country Wednesday through Saturday. It will produce more scattered areas of showers and thunderstorms, but may also cover some of those dry areas in the Plains, perhaps some of them that might miss out on the earlier week’s precipitation. This should help to improve or maintain soil moisture across a lot of the country over the next seven days.

“But it’s not all good news. Cold air filling in behind these systems will spread through more of the Plains and Midwest this week. We have already seen frosts in Montana and North Dakota on Monday and that will spread south down to maybe western Kansas and Colorado in the Plains for the next couple of days, and into Minnesota on Wednesday as a high-pressure center settles overhead in the morning. There could be some damage out there to wheat and also emerging corn and especially soybeans. Temperatures will rise for the second half of the week going into the holiday weekend. Outside of the far south where storms will continue along that stalled front, we should have an overall good holiday weekend.”

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To view weekly crop progress reports issued by National Ag Statistics Service offices in individual states, visit http://www.nass.usda.gov/. Look for the U.S. map in the “Find Data and Reports by” section and choose the state you wish to view in the drop-down menu. Then look for that state’s “Crop Progress & Condition” report.

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Editor’s Note: How are your crops looking? Are they better, worse or right on track with USDA NASS’ observations this week? Send us your comments, and we’ll include them in next week’s Crop Progress report story. You can email comments to talk@dtn.com. Please include the location of where you farm.

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EllaMae Reiff can be reached at ellamae.reiff@dtn.com

Follow her on social platform X @ellareiff