What was possibly going to be a late harvest season with the late planting and cooler mid-summer temperatures has moved ahead quicker than expected. Late season warmth and dryness pushed crops progress along and also pushed many to premature maturity because of a lack of moisture accompanying the heat in the late summer. Thus, crops that were expected to stay green well into the fall have not. A warm and relatively dry September also aided that situation.
Recent precipitation has slowed harvest progress in the northwest corn belt. This most recent storm will also probably cause a slowdown of a few days in harvest progress. But with mostly dry soil conditions over the corn belt, harvest progress should resume by next week.
Outlook conditions continue cooler than average temperatures along with largely dry conditions over the next 1-2 weeks should encourage more harvest progress. Though, the lack of heat will limit drying conditions, largely over the whole corn belt throughout most of the rest of the month.
A quick survey of state climatologists in the region concurred that there was little hard information because of the lack of reports during the government shutdown, but anecdotal information that harvest progress was moving along fine with yields somewhat better than expected in many areas. Survey data from AgriMarketing Magazine confirmed that assessment.
The major blizzard in the plains was west of the main crop areas except for sunflowers. Individual reports indicate significant sunflower lodging. Winter wheat has likely been helped throughout the northern plains because of the added moisture.
