USDA Weekly Crop Progress Reporting Begins

Planting has begun for barley, corn, cotton, oats, rice, sorghum, spring wheat, and sugarbeets, according to the first Crop Progress report issued for the 2021 planting season by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). By this time last year, 2% of the corn crop had been planted, 2% has been planted so far in 2021. Six percent of the cotton crop has been planted, 1 percentage point behind the same time last year. Fourteen percent of the sorghum crop has been planted, 1 percentage point behind a year ago. Barley, oats, rice, spring wheat and sugarbeet plantings are similar to 2020 progress.

 

Crop Progress reports are released the first workday of the week during the growing season from April through November. The reports list planting, developmental, and harvesting progress, and overall condition of selected crops in major producing states. Crops featured in the report include corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, sorghum, cotton, oats, barley, peanuts, sugarbeets, and sunflowers.

 

The reports also document soil moisture condition, days suitable for fieldwork, and pasture and range condition. The data, summarized by crop and by state, are republished along with any revisions in the NASS Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin. Crop progress and condition estimates are used by producers, agribusinesses, and traders to assess current growing conditions in order to reduce or eliminate inherent risks of doing business. Other users include federal, state, and local government agencies, educational institutions, agricultural economists, and others for planning, decision making, and research.

 

Crop Progress reports are available online at https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/8336h188j.To view the full schedule of upcoming NASS reports, visit https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Calendar/reports_by_date.php.

 

In addition to the Crop Progress report data, other resources are available to NASS data users. Crop Progress and Condition Gridded Layers are geospatial datasets representing county-level data presented in a grid format. These data layers currently include data on U.S. corn and soybean crop condition and progress by week. Datasets from 2015-2020 are also available at: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Research_and_Science/Cropland/Release/index.php.

 

The Crop Condition and Soil Moisture Analytics (Crop-CASMA) is a new web-based tool to help visualize soil moisture and crop vegetation conditions. It was designed and developed by NASS in collaboration with NASA and the George Mason University (GMU) Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems. This tool is free to the public and available at: https://cloud.csiss.gmu.edu/Crop-CASMA/.

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.