Jen Bennett

The latest Crop Progress Report from USDA puts overall corn planted at just 5%. This is only 1 point ahead of last week, and is 26 points behind the five-year average. (Is it necessary to mention that last year nearly half of the overall corn crop was in the ground? Probably not.)

Commodity Classic 2013 was held in Kissimmee, Fla. There were many educational sessions for farmers, from soybean secrets to transitioning the farm, new-product introductions to marketing plans. The general session captivated all attendees, offering viewpoints from commodity groups and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. There was fun with all the learning, too. World Classic Rockers provided entertainment, and palm trees provided a beautiful view. And don't forget about the trade show with exhibitors from all areas of agriculture. If you weren't there, here's a quick recap of a busy, informative, warm three days.

With harvest complete, we've polled farmers for what their final yields ended up being for corn and soybeans, as a percentage of normal. Taking numbers from the comments on the poll, we've mapped out final yields across the Corn Belt. We'd love to get more numbers, so feel free to leave a comment here with your final average corn and soybean yields and we'll add them to our maps.

The 2012 harvest is underway. We caught up with Dohling Farms in Nicollet County, Minnesota, the weekend after Labor Day as they were harvesting corn. They had some corn that had hail damage, but was yielding as expected. In the area, some farmers were seeing 30 bu./acre on corn that was planted to sandy ground, and more than 200 bu./acre on better soils. We'd love to see photos of your harvest! Email them to csd@csdigest.com, and we'll post them to the gallery.

With almost one-fifth of the corn crop reaching maturity, and over half of the overall crop denting, the corn harvest has started. As of Aug. 20, 4% of the 2012 corn crop has been harvested. Four percent of the soybean crop is dropping leaves, and overall soybean condition gained a point in the good-to-excellent rating category.

Corn and soybean crop conditions declined over the past week, but nearly as much as they have in past weeks. Both crops lost only 2 points in the good/excellent ratings. Growing progress continues for both crops. Corn is denting in two-thirds of the states, and over one-third of the overall crop has reached dough stage. Soybeans are nearly bloomed in all states, and over half of the overall crop is setting pods.