Corn harvest late but under way

Fair weather for the second half of the growing season kept crops in good shape through the dog days of summer, but there was no magical catch-up period in which crops -- already late from a wet spring -- were afforded an opportunity to sprint ahead to match historic averages.

The corn harvest in Texas is 70 percent complete against a historic average of 74 percent for this week of the year. North Carolina's crop is 6 percentage points behind its historic average of 76 percent harvest completion. Illinois, Indiana and Tennessee, meanwhile, are historically at 28 percent, 15 percent and 76 percent completed, instead of 2 percent, 2 percent and 16 percent, respectively.

The winter wheat planting is 36 percent done, compared to a historic average of 39 percent. Five percent of the soybean crop has been harvested against a historic average of 18 percent for this week of the year.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International.