U.S. Harvest Moving Along At Rapid Pace

Harvest in the U.S. is moving along at near record pace.

 

Dan Basse is president of AgResource Company in Chicago.

 

"We're moving along very rapidly," he said. "This is one of the fastest harvests we have seen. We'll be in the vicinity of 65 per cent harvested through Sunday (soybeans). In the area of 45 or 47 per cent on corn. Another two or three weeks we'll be virtually completed. The weather forecast looks favourable giving us a good 10 days to get stuff cut. The only problems will be with Louisiana, with that hurricane coming ashore. Short of that, the weather forecast looks very good."

 

The USDA released its October WASDE report this Friday morning.

 

"The big changes were really in what we would consider to be the Farm Service Agency Program data, which indicated a million acres less of U.S. corn, 700,000 less of U.S. soybeans in terms of planted and harvested. That gave a smaller crop. They didn't change the U.S. corn yield very much. Down a tenth of a bushel at 178.4; soybean yields held steady at 51.9. USDA also indicated that they harvested close to 93 per cent of their objective yield plots in corn, 64 in soybeans, so as we go forward these yield numbers are going to stand fairly well," added Basse.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.