Crop/Weather report for week of September 5

Harvest- In my opinion, and from what I've seen, Richland County seems to be ahead of the state averages for crop harvest. According to the report published by the USDA last week (for the week ending September 5), barley was only 58% harvested, spring wheat was 38% completed, and durum wheat was 22% finished.

I feel that we are more in line with the 5 year average which is 81% of the barley harvested, 82% of the spring wheat harvested, and 68% of the durum crop out of the field. We probably have not reached the 82% of our spring wheat being harvested but we are closer to that number than we are to the state average of 38%

Sugarbeets- Our sugarbeet crop continues to look very good. Over the past couple of weeks aerial applicators have been kept busy with what I am assuming are fungicide applications. A fairly significant storm blew through last night and brought with it some hail but I don't know that it will have a lasting effect on the crop.

Corn- We are fast approaching the optimum time for chopping corn for silage. I believe that some producers have started already but have not seen any chopping being done yet. For those trying to determine when to chop, I would suggest reading this article.

Weather- As I mentioned above much of the county got hit with a fairly substantial storm just last night. As much as 2 inches of rain was reported in the Sidney area,but like all storms in this area, some spots did not receive much rain at all. This whole week has been fairly cool and wet so not much has been happening agriculturally.