US corn and soybean harvests were expected to have advanced 11 percentage points last week, with some rainy weather in key growing areas such as Iowa limiting fieldwork, analysts said on Monday. Analysts were expecting that the US corn harvest was 21 percent complete as of September 27, according the average of 10 estimates given in a Reuters poll. The soybean harvest was seen at 18 percent complete.
A week ago, corn harvest was 10 percent complete and soybean harvest was 7 percent complete. The five-year averages for late September are 23 percent for corn and 17 percent for soybeans. The US Agriculture Department will release its weekly crop progress and conditions report at 3 pm CDT (2000 GMT) on Monday afternoon.
The report also was expected to show that good-to-excellent ratings for both crops held steady – 63 percent for soybeans and 68 percent for corn. Winter wheat planting was expected to have progressed to 35 percent complete, up from 19 percent a week earlier. The five-year average is 36 percent. A year ago, winter wheat planting was 37 percent complete.