The harvest is underway in Arkansas and corn producers are outpacing collections this year as compared to last, according to the United States Agriculture Department’s National Agricultural Statistics Service or NASS. The rice harvest, however, is slower than last year but still, slightly, outpacing the five year average.
About 17% of the corn crop has been harvested compared to 15% at this time last year and the 7% five-year average.
“Corn harvest has really picked up over the last 10 days, spurred by warm temperatures and overall lack of rainfall,” said Jason Kelley, extension agronomist-wheat and feed grains for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. “The greatest harvested acres are in the southern half of the state, but harvest has started statewide.
“Harvest should steadily increased over the next two weeks as grain moisture drops to levels that grain can be directly shipped to grain terminals or stored in bins without drying,” Kelley said. “Overall yields have been good so far, with some variability from field to field, based on the timeliness of inputs and overall field drainage during the wet spring.”
Rice is at 4% harvested compared to 8% last year, but ahead of the 3%, five-year average.
“Harvest continues to pick up speed south of I-40, while north of I-40 is at the very beginning,” said Jarrod Hardke, extension rice agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. “This week we’ll begin to see a larger jump in progress with much more rice ready for harvest.
“Results so far are variable, matching the overall appearance of the crop throughout the year,” he said.
Cotton is 100% squared — meaning they have buds that will eventually become bolls. That’s on par with last year’s rate, according to NASS. About 94% of the crop is setting bolls, slightly behind last year’s 96% and the five-year average of 97%
Harvest for the state’s cotton and peanut crops is still a ways off, Zachary Treadway, extension cotton and peanut agronomist, said.
“The majority of the cotton and peanut crops were late getting planted, so we expect a later harvest,” Treadway said. “I will say, we need a long, late summer and a kind hurricane season to finish the crop. We need to continue to accumulate heat units into October and dodge any major storms.”