It's day 15 - July 9th. My name is Moe Agostino, Chief Commodity Strategist with Farms.com Risk Management. We're starting our tour in the state of Wisconsin. We are traveling south on Hwy 12 near Augusta, Wisconsin.
Just some quick facts about Wisconsin agriculture: Wisconsin is the #1 in production in snap peas, cranberries, and carrots and also number 1 in dairy farms & dairy goats. Corn, record yield was last year at 164, the average crop conditions here is 85% good to excellent, 3% very poor to poor. We planted 4 million acres in 2016 vs last year at 4.2 million acres - down 4.77%. Record yield in beans, 2010 at 50.5, last year came close at 49.5. 83% of the soybean crop is good to excellent, 3% very poor to poor. 1,880,000 acres in 2016 vs 1.95 million last year down 3.6%. We can't really talk about wheat here - there is very little acres - about 230,000 acres.
Here is a corn field. Both the corn and beans are rated pretty high, like the national average is 75%. It does look good here, I think it is ahead of schedule based on past years observations, but this is about head high here. A little bit of variability, inconsistency but overall looking good for the start of the state of Wisconsin.
[Video clips of Wisconsin field conditions]
We are now traveling east on Hwy 18 towards Cobb, Wisconsin. We have gone from Eau Clare and we have come down south approaching Madison, but we are going to continue to go south. We are not quite at the border yet, but overall the beans look really good. There is some variability as you travel further south, but for the most part there is a lot of uniformity. You can see this field has a little bit of variability, some weed pressure, but overall looks good. They've got some timely rains here, it was hot through June like most other states and I am not seeing any cracks in the soil. This one has some pretty good moisture, not quite blooming, but almost there. V5 stage and just about to bloom here probably in the next week or so.
[Video clips of Wisconsin field conditions]
We are now traveling south on Hwy 69 near New Glarus, Wisconsin. We are going to end our tour in the state of Wisconsin. It's day - 15 July 9th. This is a nice looking corn field here - 30 inches. I don't see any dry areas although guys are saying that they need some timely rains. This corn looks like it is going to pollinate and tassel for the 2nd half of July. So there is 50% of the corn in the U.S. Midwest that is going to tassel in that period so we need to avoid the heat, need to avoid the crop stress, and need timely rains to make sure that this finishes strong. On average, Wisconsin reminds me of Minnesota - probably not as good as Iowa, but Iowa is a little further ahead just because they are further south. As you get further north they tend to tassel and pollinate a little bit later. I'm going to rank it an 8-8.5 like I did in Nebraska. It's looking good - an above average crop. In some cases, they are at least 1-2 weeks ahead, they planted early. Some areas did get hit with frost and that pushed them back a little bit, but overall above average.
[Video clips of Wisconsin field conditions]