Posted: 08.02.2011

All the heat, humidity and moisture Wisconsin's experienced over the past 10 days seem to be helping crops along - for now.

The latest survey from the Wisconsin Ag Statistical Service shows that the corn crop is now averaging 78 inches tall around the state - with 72 percent of the crop already silked out.  5 percent of the corn is already in the dough stage of kernel development.

Soybeans are also looking good.  71 percent of the crop is blooming - and 24 percent of the crop is also setting pods which is an indicator of the size of crop farmers can expect.

Growers seemed to remain confident in the crop they have too.  According to their comments, 54 percent rated their corn crop "good" while 27 percent said it was "excellent".  Soybeans had farmers say 55 percent of the crop was "good" with 26 percent calling it "excellent".

It does appear that not all the crops have benefited from the recent weather.  Reports in to the Wisconsin Farm Report Radio group said that some of the vegetable harvesting operations in Wisconsin have been disrupted because of the wet weather and wind damage.  Vegetable processors say they've got some concerns about the quality of potatoes they're digging in the north central portion of the state because of moisture conditions.  This is the time when processors are looking for the smaller "B" baby potatoes - but have been disappointed in the harvest so far.

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