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Production
Estimates and Crop Assessment Division |
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Production
Estimates and Crop Assessment Division |
June 14, 2002
Evidence of heavy precipitation and delayed planting might signal a desire of producers to shift some acreage from corn to soybeans during the 2002 growing season. Numerous heavy precipitation events during April and May drenched the Cornbelt states of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, delaying planting of summer crops beyond their optimal planting window. Cumulative precipitation for the Central Cornbelt during the period March 1-May 31, 2002 shows the wetness extending through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. The "bootheel" region of Missouri was especially hard hit.
Overall vegetation conditions during 2002 are considerably better than in both 2000 and 2001, as indicated by the darker shades of green in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) comparison for the May16-31.
Landsat-7 satellite imagery during mid-May 2002 shows that many of the rivers in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio were extremely swollen, inundating the low-lying areas along their path. In Missouri, many of the tributaries to the Missouri River flooded farmland along their banks, as indicated in the darker shades of blue. In Livingston County, Missouri, several farms along the Grand and Thompson Rivers were flooded. The "bootheel" region was also adversely affected by flooding . However, persistent cloudiness during the satellite overpass precluded the use of available Landsat-7 scenes for this area.
In Illinois and Indiana the Skillet Fork, Little Wabash, Embarras, North Fork, and Wabash rivers were extremely swollen and flooded several of the low-lying areas along their path. The Ohio River also showed evidence of significant flooding along its path bordering Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois.
Field reports from USDA/NASS, current as of June 9, 2002, indicate that favorably drier weather advanced planting operations of summer crops. The corn crop is about 98 percent planted. Planting is now nearly complete in Indiana (92 percent planted/ 75 percent last week /100 percent in 1998/2001 average), Kentucky (99/78/100/97), and Ohio (89/67/100/100), where farmers were able to make considerable progress during last week. To date, the soybean crop is about 85 percent planted. Some planting delays are still evident in Illinois (86/56/92/92), Indiana (72/45/98/93), Kentucky (59/24/79/62), and Ohio (69/36/92/91). Soybean emergence is also running a bit behind schedule in the above states. Harvesting of the winter wheat crop has just begun in the Eastern United States. Emergence of the rice crop is on target at 96 percent. Nearly 95 percent of the cotton crop has already been planted and is approaching the squaring stage The peanut crop was planting on time and is progressing well.
