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This article was originally published at 3:07 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, Sept. 11. It was last updated with additional information at 4:08 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, Sept. 11.

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OMAHA (DTN) -- The 2023 U.S. corn harvest is slightly outpacing the five-year average so far as the crop continues to reach maturity ahead of normal, USDA NASS stated in its weekly Crop Progress report on Monday. Soybeans, too, continue to reach maturity ahead of the five-year average.

CORN

-- Crop progress: NASS said 97% of corn was in the dough stage and 82% was dented, both ahead of the five-year average pace. Thirty-four percent of the crop was mature, 10 percentage points ahead of last year and 6 points ahead of the five-year average of 28%.

-- Harvest progress: In its first national corn harvest report of the season, NASS estimated that 5% of the crop was harvested as of Sunday, equal to last year but slightly ahead of the five-year average of 4%. Texas was the furthest ahead with 63% of its crop harvested, followed by North Carolina at 44% and Kansas at 20%, 10 percentage points ahead of its five-year average.

-- Crop condition: USDA said 52% of the corn crop was rated good to excellent as of Sept. 10, down 1 point from 53% last week and 1 point lower than a year ago. "The good-to-excellent rating rose 1 point to 58% in Illinois, and Iowa fell 3 points to 46%, while Kansas and Missouri remain the worst-rated, at just 31% and 35% good to excellent, respectively," noted DTN Senior Analyst Dana Mantini.

SOYBEANS

-- Crop progress: USDA said 31% of the crop was dropping leaves, 11 percentage points ahead of last year and 6 points ahead of the five-year average of 25%.

-- Crop condition: USDA said 52% of the soybean crop was rated good to excellent, down 1 point from 53% last week and below 56% last year. "The good-to-excellent rating for Illinois was unchanged at 58%, and it declined 5 points in Iowa to 44% good to excellent," Mantini said. "Kansas is the worst-rated at just 23% good to excellent."

SPRING WHEAT

-- Harvest progress: USDA said spring wheat harvest was 87% complete as of Sept. 10, 4 points ahead of last year and now equal to the five-year average. "North Dakota moved ahead 18 points to 82% done, compared to the average of 84%," Mantini noted.

WINTER WHEAT

-- Planting progress: Winter wheat planting advanced 6 percentage points last week to reach 7% complete as of Sunday. That is 2 points ahead of last year but equal to the five-year average.

WEATHER OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

The central and Southern Plains are expected to get some good precipitation this week, which should benefit winter wheat planting but could delay the row-crop harvest, according to DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick. Light rain is also forecast for much of the Corn Belt this week, he said.

"It was a ho-hum week last week with a front that moved through and washed out most of the heat that built up over the Labor Day weekend but didn't bring much rain outside of the East Coast and parts of the Delta," Baranick said.

"We saw a front move into the Plains and Corn Belt over this past weekend and brought some good rainfall for some folks in the Plains and across southern Iowa, but not much elsewhere just yet. The front will be sagging south and east for the rest of the week. Another front will quickly move into the Plains late this week with the system to that front getting down toward the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend and then shifting eastward.

"The central and Southern Plains states are forecast to get some good rain out of this week's activity, and Texas especially, which may help to ease drought concern and get some soil moisture in there as winter wheat planting starts kicking up a bit. The rain could cause some delays in the maturing of corn and soybeans there as well. But the bulk of the Corn Belt is in line for light rainfall amounts that won't be much help or hindrance this week.

"Temperatures will be on the mild to cool side behind this front moving through. We should see temperatures starting to rise this weekend but especially next week."

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Editor's Note: How are your crops looking? Are they better, worse, or right on track with USDA NASS' observations this week? Send us your comments, and we'll include them in this Crop Progress report story. You can email comments to Anthony.greder@dtn.com or direct message him on X (formerly Twitter) @AGrederDTN. Please include the location where you farm.

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To view weekly crop progress reports issued by National Ag Statistics Service offices in individual states, visit http://www.nass.usda.gov/…. Look for the U.S. map in the "Find Data and Reports by" section and choose the state you wish to view in the drop-down menu. Then look for that state's "Crop Progress & Condition" report.

National Crop Progress Summary
	This	Last	Last	5-Year
	Week	Week	Year	Avg.
Corn Dough	97	93	95	96
Corn Dented	82	67	75	78
Corn Mature	34	18	24	28
Corn Harvested	5	NA	5	4
Soybeans Dropping Leaves	31	16	20	25
Cotton Setting Bolls	98	94	100	98
Cotton Bolls Opening	43	32	48	42
Cotton Harvested	8	NA	8	7
Winter Wheat Planted	7	1	9	7
Spring Wheat Harvested	87	74	83	87
Sorghum Headed	97	93	95	99
Sorghum Coloring	74	61	72	76
Sorghum Mature	37	28	35	34
Sorghum Harvested	21	19	23	22
Barley Harvested	89	80	89	90
Oats Harvested	95	90	94	96
Rice Harvested	45	34	33	35

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National Crop Condition Summary
(VP=Very Poor; P=Poor; F=Fair; G=Good; E=Excellent)
	This Week						Last Week						Last Year
	VP	P	F	G	E		VP	P	F	G	E		VP	P	F	G	E
Corn	6	12	30	43	9		6	12	29	44	9		9	11	27	41	12
Soybeans	6	12	30	43	9		5	12	30	44	9		5	10	29	45	11
Sorghum	10	16	30	35	9		10	16	30	36	8		17	29	34	19	1
Rice	-	3	26	56	15		1	5	24	55	15		1	3	24	58	14
Cotton	18	23	30	24	5		19	22	28	26	5		15	22	30	29	4

Anthony Greder can be reached at anthony.greder@dtn.com

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