Agricultural Summary

Farmers utilized 5.7 days suitable for fieldwork to make good progress with hay harvest. Crop conditions remain mostly fair to good around the state with the exception of some dry pockets across the northwest, north-central, and east-central districts. Row crops in the drier areas are showing signs of stress, while hay yields have been somewhat short. Meanwhile, counties in the west-central district along the Kansas border have struggled with the effects of last week’s heavy rains. Flooding caused some crop losses to corn, soybeans, and hay where fields were completely drowned out. A dry week caused moderate deterioration in topsoil moisture from last week, with the state rated 6 percent very short, 20 percent short, 63 percent adequate, and 11 percent surplus, a drop of 7 points in adequate and surplus.

Field Crops Report

The corn crop is 62 percent silked, slightly ahead of the 5-year average of 61 percent. The percentage of the crop entering the dough stage is on track with last year and normal, with 7 percent at the state level. Among the major corn districts, the central already has 24 percent in dough stage. The crop is rated 3 percent very poor, 5 percent poor, 26 percent fair, 51 percent good, and 15 percent excellent, stable from last week. Ninety-seven percent of the soybean crop is planted, with 94 percent emerged. Only the wettest areas of the west-central and southwest districts remain to be planted. Soybean blooming is at 16 percent, 4 days behind last year and 2 days behind normal. Three percent of the crop is setting pods. Soybean condition is rated 3 percent very poor, 5 percent poor, 33 percent fair, 52 percent good, and 7 percent excellent, a slight improvement from last week. Sorghum heading is at 19 percent, about 6 days ahead of last year and average. Sorghum condition is rated 1 percent very poor, 4 percent poor, 35 percent fair, 54 percent good, and 6 percent excellent. Rice heading is at 6 percent, slightly ahead of normal. Rice condition is rated 2 percent poor, 15 percent fair, 54 percent good, and 29 percent excellent. Cotton squaring is at 89 percent, 8 days ahead of both last year and average. Thirty percent is setting bolls, at least 4 days ahead of last year and normal. Cotton condition is rated 7 percent very poor, 11 percent poor, 25 percent fair, 55 percent good, and 2 percent excellent. Wheat harvest is 83 percent complete, nearly 2 weeks behind last year and 1 week behind normal. All districts are at least 81 percent complete except the southwest at 40 percent and the west-central at 53 percent. Good progress was made in the alfalfa harvest, advancing to 64 percent complete, but still 1 week behind last year and 5 days behind average. Other hay is 84 percent cut, 8 days behind last year and 4 days behind average.

Pasture & Livestock

Pasture condition is rated 3 percent very poor, 12 percent poor, 42 percent fair, 37 percent good, and 6 percent excellent. There have been isolated reports of pastures struggling to recover from various setbacks, including the April freeze, overgrazing, and dry weather.

Weather Summary

Temperatures averaged close to normal over most of the state, although parts of the Bootheel were 3 to 4 degrees below normal. Rainfall averaged 0.34 inches. The west-central and southeast districts averaged about 1 inch, the east-central and southwest received about one-half inch, and all other districts were under one-quarter inch.