What is going on with Pennsylvania corn?

USDA has consistently rated a high percentage of Pennsylvania’s corn good to excellent for the last five weeks.

Pennsylvania corn progress and condition

As of June 30, 97% of Pennsylvania’s corn had emerged, according to USDA. That was an increase of 3 percentage points for the week, the same percentage as that reported last year at this time, and up 2 percentage points compared to the five-year average.

Pennsylvania did not have any corn silking to report as of June 30. That was to be expected based on historical data: None of the state’s corn crop was silking last year at this time, and the five-year average is zero.

For the week ending June 30, USDA rated 87% of Pennsylvania’s corn good to excellent. The high percentage of good-to-excellent corn is the lowest the state has seen since USDA began rating corn this season. The percentage of good-to-excellent corn week by week has been as follows: 100% as of June 2, 93% as of June 9, 91% as of June 16, 90% as of June 23, and 87% as of June 30. 

According to Monday’s report, Pennsylvania ranked the highest by 7 percentage points in terms of good-to-excellent corn of top-producing states (Nebraska ranked second with 80% good-to-excellent corn). Pennsylvania is also the only state that hasn’t had any corn rated very poor since USDA began rating corn this season.

Pennsylvania weather 

According to USDA, the state experienced above average temperatures the week ending June 30. The departure from normal was 1.38°. In terms of precipitation for the same week, the departure from normal was 0.51 inches. However, the departure from normal for the past 4 weeks was -1.11 inches. 

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor’s most recent report, just over 58% of Pennsylvania is abnormally dry while about 9.8% of the state was experiencing moderate drought conditions as of July 2. It represents a significant increase in dry and drought conditions for the state. As of June 18, only one week prior, just under 13% of the state was abnormally dry and none of the state was experiencing moderate drought conditions.

State climatologist comments on great conditions, looks ahead 

Kyle Imhoff, Pennsylvania’s state climatologist, said he was not surprised at the numbers from USDA and explained why.

“Across the state, we generally have not had weather conditions that have been overly stressful to the crop through the late spring and early summer,” according to Imhoff. “Soil moisture levels for much of this time were near to slightly above normal and temperatures were a few degrees above normal.”

When asked whether he anticipated the state’s corn crop to remain in such great shape in the coming weeks and overall this season, Imhoff had the following input: “The largest impact I could see on crop health would be in far southeastern Pennsylvania where drought conditions and drier soils have been worsening over the past few weeks.”