Winter wheat harvest on track

WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) -- The U.S. winter wheat harvest is keeping up with its historic pace, but spring wheat is lagging its five-year benchmarks, the weekly crop report said.

The 18 largest winter wheat-producing states report harvest is 56 percent completed, against a five-year average of 59 percent for this time of year. Spring wheat, however, is 30 percent headed out in the six largest spring wheat producing states. Historically, 65 percent has headed out by this time of year.

The soybean crop is 100 percent emerged in eight of the country's 18 largest soybean producing states. Nationally, the crop is 96 percent emerged.

Soybeans, which had a slow start, have blossomed in 14 percent of the acreage planted compared to an historic average of 24 percent.

In Louisiana, 41 percent of the cotton crop has set bolls, far ahead of the 2008 crop in that state. At this time of year in 2008, 9 percent of the states cotton crop had set bolls by Jul 5.

Overall, the nation's cotton crop is ahead of last year's, but slightly behind the five-year crop average.

Ninety-two percent of the nation's corn crop is in fair to excellent condition, the report said.