Past IEM Features tagged: nass

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NASS Days Suitable for Fieldwork

22 Dec 2023 05:30 AM
The IEM has recently been working on wrangling a new dataset based on the weekly Iowa crop reporting districts reports found here. These reports contain an estimate of the number of days over the past week that were suitable for fieldwork. With data back to 1974, but with some limited holes, the featured chart attempts to reproduce the climatology of this value by day of the year. The weekly values are evenly weighted to a daily probability and then averaged over the period of record. The resulting chart looks awesome and nicely illustrates some aspects of the difficulties of agriculture in Iowa. The most important time of year to be in the field is to plant and the months of April and May have the lowest frequencies found over the growing season! The highest frequencies are found over the second half of the growing season when rainfall events decrease in frequency and spatial extent vs spring. The plotted colors were selected to highlight north to south differences with the northern tier clearly lagging in April, but then an interesting lag over southern Iowa is found during May. The dip in frequencies over the end of May may be more explained by data collection difficulties during the Memorial Day holiday weekend than a physical process ongoing in the state. The IEM website doesn't have much to offer with this dataset yet, but a general landing page is available and tooling will come with time.

Voting:
Good: 14
Bad: 1

Tags:   nass   suitable   fieldwork  

Soybean Progress

23 May 2023 05:30 AM
While we certainly could use some rain, the recent dry weather has allowed significant planting progress to be made as shown by the weekly USDA NASS update released yesterday. The featured chart presents the weekly soybean crop planting progress for six states. All of the years with data are plotted and this year along with last year are highlighted for comparison. All of the states shown are ahead of last year and above 50% completed.

Voting:
Good: 12
Bad: 1

Tags:   nass   soybean   planting  

Days Suitable for Field Work

03 May 2023 05:30 AM
The weekly USDA NASS update released every Monday includes an estimate of the number of statewide days over the past seven days that were suitable for field work. This value is provided at the statewide level and so there are plenty of caveats to consider. The value for 30 April was reported as 4.8 days for Iowa, which is a good number to make crop planting progress. The technicolor dream of a daily feature chart presents the accumulated suitable days for Iowa each year since 1995. The accumulated value for this year stands at 17 days, so the X denotes each previous year's date with a similar value. One can see that we are well ahead of the pace set in 2022, but in line with 2020 and 2021. A number of previous years readily stick out including the difficult spring seasons of 2013 and 2019. The drought year of 2012 is a significant outlier as warm temperatures and persistent drought allowed for rapid accumulation of suitable days.

Voting:
Good: 9
Bad: 0

Tags:   nass   fieldwork  

Very Productive Week

17 May 2022 05:30 AM
The USDA released their weekly crop progress update on Monday and estimated a very productive past week for corn planting over much of the country. The featured chart presents the weekly change in absolute percentage points of estimated corn acres planted. The y-axis labels show the max weekly change value for each year. The 43% shown this past week for Iowa is about in line with productive weeks over the period of record. While planters have certainly gotten bigger and can be pulled faster than ever before, there are far fewer farmers these days so the end result is not much change in overall planting speed. Climate change has also not helped by reducing the number of days during the spring season amenable to planting.

Voting:
Good: 11
Bad: 2

Tags:   nass  

Progress or lack thereof

03 May 2022 05:30 AM
The USDA released its weekly crop progress report on Monday and it confirmed lack thereof of progress with planting. The featured map presents the USDA estimated corn acres planted percentage along with a departure from 10 year average expressed in percentage points. The western corn belt is way behind due to cold temperatures and now wet conditions. It is only the first week of May, so there is still time yet to get the crops in before significant yield penalties occur for a late planted crop. The near term forecast is not very optimistic for planting progress to be made this week and while next week looks warmer, it may be stormy as well.

Voting:
Good: 16
Bad: 1

Tags:   nass  

2021 Soybean Harvest

15 Oct 2021 05:33 AM
The soybean harvest has made good progress this fall season in Iowa. The featured chart presents an IEM attempt to produce a daily analysis of how far ahead or behind schedule the given year's harvest was compared to USDA NASS weekly crop harvest estimates. For an illustration, the most recent NASS estimate for Iowa this year was 56%, which is a few days earlier than when one would expect to hit 56% completion based on an average computed over the past fifteen years. A comparison is made to other recent and notable years like 2019, which was miserably wet and late maturing. 2012 was the drought year and had great harvest conditions along with a very early maturing crop. Recent rains have slowed progress somewhat, but drier weather looks to return to allow progress to resume.

Voting:
Good: 12
Bad: 0

Tags:   nass  

Further Degradation

17 Aug 2021 04:33 AM
Updated USDA NASS crop progress numbers were released on Monday and painted a degrading picture for soil moisture in Iowa and elsewhere. While some isolated areas of the state have seen significant rainfall over the past week, most of the state was left out. The featured map presents the percentage of top soil estimated to be in short to very short condition along with the week over week change in that value. Warm day time temperatures and dry air are colluding now to further dry out whatever top soil moisture was available. Time is running out for rainfall to help this year's corn and soybean crop. Some rainfall is in the forecast after a few more dry days to start off this week.

Voting:
Good: 11
Bad: 2

Tags:   nass  

Topsoil Moisture Change

15 Jun 2021 08:48 PM
The weekly update for USDA NASS was released on Monday afternoon and showed a deteriorating crop and soil moisture condition in the state. Both were not surprises given the hot and mostly dry weather we have been seeing over the past week. The featured map presents the USDA NASS percentage of "topsoil" (top 6 inches) estimated to be in the short to very short category by state along with the percentage point change versus last week's estimate. Iowa (and Vermont) lead the way with the largest percentage point changes for this metric. The weekly update to the US Drought Monitor, to be released on Thursday, will likely not show further deterioration as well. Significant rainfall chances are in the forecast, but we have to get through another couple of very hot days first. Rain can not come soon enough at this point!

Voting:
Good: 12
Bad: 2
Abstain: 1

Tags:   nass  

Repeat of 2012?

14 Jun 2021 10:34 PM
The USDA released their weekly crop progress report earlier today and it painted a worsening crop condition in the state. The featured chart presents yearly time series of corn crop condition rated in either poor or very poor condition. Each of the previous years since 1986 is plotted with this year and 2012 highlighted. Of course, 2012 was a major drought year for much of the corn belt and the worry is that we will have a major drought again this year. While the forecast this week continues the mostly dry and hot weather, there is some hope in the forecast for next week with cooler temperatures and more chances of precipitation.

Voting:
Good: 10
Bad: 2

Tags:   nass  

When Corn Harvest Progress is Made

01 Dec 2020 05:36 AM
The featured chart presents the weekly corn crop harvest progress by year for Iowa based on USDA NASS data. The percentage of Iowa corn crop acres harvested for a given week is shown by the individual bars. The largest weekly percentage each year is denoted on the y-axis labels. There is a misconception that since farmers have much faster and higher capacity equipment than ever before, that the harvest progresses faster than 10-30 years ago. While the farmers can go faster, they are running more acres per farmer each year with the associated decrease in number of farmers farming! Qualitatively, the plot nicely shows the biggest harvest weeks happening during October.

Voting:
Good: 12
Bad: 0

Tags:   nass  

97% Done

18 Nov 2020 05:38 AM
The USDA released their updated NASS crop progress report on Monday and the featured chart presents their weekly corn crop harvest progress linearly interpolated to daily values. The 2020 progress is currently rated at 97% with each year's "X" on the chart representing where the 97% value occurred that year. The year got off to a very fast harvest start, but it will take a while to get the entire crop finished as derecho mangled fields remain along with normal logistics for some farmers to get their entire crop harvested. The weather looks favorable this week for progress to continue with very warm temperatures again.

Voting:
Good: 9
Bad: 2

Tags:   nass  

Great Soybean Harvest Start

30 Sep 2020 05:38 AM
The agricultural crop harvest is well underway with soybeans off to a fast start. The featured chart presents USDA NASS soybean harvest estimates for Iowa. The weekly values are linearly interpolated to daily for the sake of comparison. The chart shows the year to date departure of soybean harvest against a recent climatology. For this year, Iowa is about 20 percentage points ahead of average and is tracking 2012 (another drought year) well. This year is a remarkable contrast to last year as shown by the black line. Since the chart shows departures from average, eventually the crop gets harvested so that the departure goes to zero.

Voting:
Good: 11
Bad: 0

Tags:   nass  

2020 Drought and Derecho

26 Aug 2020 05:01 AM
The USDA NASS weekly update released on Monday showed a deteriorating corn crop condition for Iowa with about 25% of the state's crop now rated either "poor" or "very poor". The featured chart presents the weekly values since 1986 for six states in the Midwestern US. Each year since 1986 is plotted with the big drought years of 1988 and 2012 highlighted for each state. The recent uptick in bad crop condition is thanks to the ongoing drought and damage from the August 10th Derecho. It is getting too late in the season for additional rain to help the corn crop, but it could perhaps help the soybean crop some. There is some hope for rain next week, but more hot daytime weather is in store until then.

Voting:
Good: 13
Bad: 0

Tags:   nass   corn  

Iowa in the Lead

14 May 2020 04:37 AM
For Midwestern states, Iowa is in the lead for corn crop planting progress according to the weekly crop progress update made by the USDA on Monday. The featured map presents the statewide estimates along with a departure from the previous ten years. Outside of some recent chilly temperatures, this spring has been near ideal for planting in Iowa. Conditions have been wetter to our southeast, which has slowed progress there. The forecast has our weather turning back to more summer time conditions with chances of needed (imagine saying that a few months back) rain and warmer temperatures.

Voting:
Good: 15
Bad: 1

Tags:   nass   cron  

Great Start for Corn Planting

29 Apr 2020 04:27 AM
The USDA released their weekly crop progress estimates on Monday and corn planting is off to a great start for the state. The featured chart presents the yearly planting progress with this year's latest estimate of 39% denoted with an X for all previous years. Of the past 9 years, only 2016 comes in with a slightly faster pace than this year. One would expect next week's updated number to be a sizable increase in progress as well with good conditions prevailing this week.

Voting:
Good: 8
Bad: 0

Tags:   nass   corn  

Corn Harvest Difficulties

21 Nov 2019 12:02 AM
With rain again pouring down over the Midwestern US, one continues to wonder when the corn crop harvest will come to a completion. A late maturing crop along with cold and wet weather and even snow have all conspired to put progress well behind normal. The featured map presents the latest USDA NASS update on corn harvest progress along with an IEM computed departure against the average of the previous ten years. While the situation in Iowa is not good, things are worse to our north including a mind boggling departure shown in North Dakota.

Voting:
Good: 17
Bad: 1
Abstain: 1

Tags:   nass  

Another Late Soybean Harvest

24 Oct 2019 05:34 AM
A late maturing crop and persistently wet weather has put the harvest of the soybean crop behind schedule. The most recent update from the USDA had just under half of the Iowa Soybean crop harvested. The featured chart presents the yearly progression of soybean harvest for Iowa with the white 'X' denoting where this year's most recent value of 48% resides for that given previous year. Excluding the brutal fall season of 2009, the past two years and this one have all had slower harvests than anything since 1986!

Voting:
Good: 10
Bad: 0

Tags:   nass   soybean  

2019 Corn Denting Progress

04 Sep 2019 05:34 AM
The USDA updated their weekly crop progress report and estimated 41% of the corn in Iowa has reached denting stage. The featured chart presents the yearly progress of this metric with linearly interpolated values in between the weekly reports. The white X values represent when each previous year reached the present year's value of 41%. A few recent years show up with a later progress, including 2013 and 2009. Once corn has dented, it still takes about another month or more before reaching black layer and full maturity. We really need to make it at least through at least September before any killing freeze happens and preferably well into October.

Voting:
Good: 11
Bad: 0

Tags:   nass   corn  

2019 Corn Crop Condition

15 Aug 2019 05:33 AM
The 2019 growing season continues to roll along and today's featured chart checks in on the USDA NASS reported corn crop condition for six states over the Midwest. The chart shows a daily interpolated time series of percentage of the corn crop rated in poor or very poor condition. Each year since 1986 is plotted along with three highlighted years. Of course, 2012 was a big drought year which significantly reduced yields. This year has been confounding. The percentage of acres rated poorly remains generally low for Iowa, but the crop is late developing this year and an increasing drought is of concern. The recent dry weather has been mitigated by limited amounts of heat stress. So we are kind of rolling along and wondering how this situation plays out for the rest of the growing season.

Voting:
Good: 13
Bad: 0

Tags:   nass  

Slow Weekly Corn Progress

05 Jun 2019 05:34 AM
This week's update to the USDA NASS corn crop planting progress continues to paint a dire picture over the corn belt. Persistent rains and wet field conditions have significantly delayed planting and the crop that has been planted has suffered from the same wet soil conditions and cool air temperatures. The featured chart depicts the weekly percentage of acres planted by year. For each year, the week with the highest value is labelled on the left hand side. This year's max so far is the lowest shown on the chart.

Voting:
Good: 10
Bad: 0

Tags:   nass   corn  

Illinois Corn Progress

02 May 2019 05:34 AM
The USDA released their crop planting progress estimates on Monday and corn planting progress is behind average. The largest deviation from average is for Illinois and the featured chart presents a visualization of this. Each year's crop planting progress is represented by a horizontal bar. The X on each year's bar represents the present 9% progress value of 2019 for the previous year. Since 2010, only 2013 comes in with a later date for reaching 9% coverage.

Voting:
Good: 12
Bad: 0

Tags:   nass  

2018 Corn Crop Condition

29 Aug 2018 05:34 AM
The featured chart displays weekly USDA NASS corn crop condition reports. The values plotted are the combined crop acres estimated to be in either Poor or Very Poor condition. The individual charts show each year's time series since 1986, with this year and two recent years highlighted. Of course, 2012 was the major drought year. This year compares favorably for each state plotted except Missouri. Of those plotted, Missouri has seen the most intense drought conditions this year.

Voting:
Good: 9
Bad: 0

Tags:   nass  

Early Corn Silking

11 Jul 2018 05:36 AM
The most recent update from the USDA NASS Crop Statistics show a rapidly maturing corn crop over much of the midwestern US. The map displays the statewide estimates of percentage of the corn crop in silking stage with the bottom labelled number and colors representing the departure from the previous ten year average. This is an important time of year for the development of corn as hot and humid conditions tend to be a negative for yield potential. Some of these areas are also in drought, which is a negative as well.

Voting:
Good: 9
Bad: 0
Abstain: 1

Tags:   nass  

Weekly Corn Planting Progress

03 May 2018 05:33 AM
The spring planting season in Iowa has been a struggle. The epic cold and snow of April delayed the onset and widespread rains this week will further delay activity. There was a window of about seven days last week into early this week that allowed for some progress to me made. The featured chart looks at USDA NASS reported weekly crop progress reports since 1979 for Iowa. The estimates are updated by the USDA weekly and the chart shows the yearly progress by day of the year with the top panel and the maximum weekly change each year with the bottom panel. The bottom panel casts some doubt on the perception that farmers are getting the corn crop in faster thanks to bigger and faster equipment. While certainly the size and speed of corn planters has increased since 1979, the number of acres planted per planter has dramatically increased as well.

Voting:
Good: 12
Bad: 0

Tags:   corn   nass  

Corn Denting Progress

07 Sep 2017 05:34 AM
The fall harvest season is soon to get in full swing. The corn crop is running somewhat behind this year. The featured chart displays yearly USDA NASS estimates of the percentage of the corn crop that is in 'dented' stage. This is one of the last development stages before harvest. The most recent analysis places 60% of Iowa's crop in this dented status and the 'x's on the plot denote the date during previous years that were at 60% as well. So we are a bit behind of 2016, but in line with the previous two years to that. It is kind of interesting to see how far 2012 sticks out. Of course, 2012 featured a drought and epic warmth, which got the crop quickly to maturity.

Voting:
Good: 10
Bad: 0

Tags:   nass   corn  

2017 Corn Crop Condition

26 Jul 2017 05:36 AM
The featured chart displays weekly USDA NASS crop condition reports by state. Each tan line represents the weekly progression of the statewide coverage of corn crop reported to be in either bad or very bad condition. Three years are highlighted for this presentation, which are the years of 2012, 2016 and 2017. For this year, Iowa is shown to be in about as good of shape as any of the others highlighted here. The worst conditions are shown in Indiana, who has seen flooding rains this season.

Voting:
Good: 9
Bad: 0

Tags:   nass   corn  

Weekly Corn Planting

06 May 2015 05:40 AM
The USDA updated corn planting progress valid for 3 May shows that Iowa farmers had a very productive last week with 54% of the projected corn acres getting planted over the past seven days. The featured chart displays the percentage of acres planted over the seven day analysis periods for each year since 1979. The highest weekly total is shown on the left hand side of the chart. This analysis would indicate that it is common for such a high percentage of acres to get planted within one week. Progress this week has slowed considerably with numerous rounds of rain.

Voting:
Good: 19
Bad: 11
Abstain: 4

Tags:   corn   nass