Although USDA last week announced another week as very good, the state’s extension climatologist said the state’s corn crop had gotten off to a “Goldilocks start.” The general condition of Nebraska’s corn crop remains very good.
For the week ending June 23, USDA rated 0% of Nebraska’s corn very poor, 3% poor, 15% fair, 53% good and 29% excellent. In terms of good/excellent corn, the combined total of 82% puts Nebraska near the top of the rankings for best corn in the country, second only to Pennsylvania at 90% good/excellent corn. By far, Nebraska had the most corn rated excellent — the next closest was Wisconsin with 16% excellent corn.
Most of this growing season, much of Nebraska has been at a pretty high percentage kind of corn in good/excellent condition. The statewide percentage of good/excellent corn has stayed above 80 percent since the week ending June 2, which was the first week corn condition was reported in the Crop Progress report.
This time last year, corn conditions were far worse. For the weeks ending June 4 through June 25 in 2023, the average percentage of good/excellent corn for the state was 60%, according to USDA.
Nebraska’s total—100 percent—expected corn crop is now emerged as of June 23, according to Monday’s report.
Extension climatologist weighs in
Eric Hunt, agricultural meteorology and climate resilience extension educator, credited those great conditions to the fact that a fair amount of the state has had a pretty good start to the year, weather-wise, with timely rains and appropriately warm temperatures.
“We really haven’t had any sustained heat yet. We’ve had, generally speaking, adequate moisture,” Hunt said.
“There’s not very many places that are really short on moisture to the point where it’s actually hurt the crop to this point,” Hunt added. Conditions right now are “certainly the best shape we’ve been in, at least three years here in the state,” he said.
Going forward into the growing season, Hunt estimated that if there’s any concern, it would be higher minimum temperatures and higher humidity.
“I think there’s a lot of the corn crop that, so far, has kind of had almost a Goldilocks start,” Hunt said.
Revisiting the eastern Nebraska farmer affected by tornadoes
One of the EF-3 tornadoes that cut across the eastern part of the state in late April hit Mark Backhuus, who farms 320 acres of corn and soybeans in Washington County, Nebraska. Last month, Successful Farming caught up with him to discuss his experience, including how he’s replanted most of his crop.
He provided an update on how his crop looks as June comes to a close. When asked what the state averages are for corn conditions, he said of his, “I wouldn’t call mine good to excellent.” He credited the late replanting and a 5-inch rain right after replanting.
“With all the rain we’ve had since then … it’s getting better,” Backhuus said.
The corn in the surrounding area is looking pretty good, though, even just a few miles out from where Backhuus farms.
“The corn in my area that was planted before we got [the tornado and accompanying rain and the 5-inch rain] is excellent,” he said.
Backhuus said he had a small section of planted corn, about 30 acres, that the tornado missed and didn’t have to replant. In describing the crop, he said, “It looks great.”
The farmer added, “I look at that all the time and think … if I wouldn’t have had to replant corn, my corn would all look like this.
That’s far from the truth, as far as he’s concerned — in contrast to what is reflected by USDA’s ratings for the state as a whole, Backhuus said his corn is not exceeding that of previous years.
That’s mainly “because of the poor stands and mudded-in terrace channels … and it’s small,” he said. “It’ll be knee-high by the fourth of July … which is what the old standard used to be.