USDA: Corn Harvest Ahead of Schedule

WKMS | By The Associated Press

Published August 21, 2012 at 8:44 AM CDT

This year's corn harvest is ahead of schedule with four percent in already, compared with just one percent at this time last year. The harvest is three to four weeks ahead of schedule in most of the corn belt because an unusually warm spring allowed farmers to plant earlier. Most then expected a good year, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been reducing its estimates of the nation's harvest amid a severe drought centered over the Midwest. It now says it expects the least amount of corn since 2006, although the tally won't be certain until the harvest is done. It is significantly ahead of schedule in some places. The USDA reported Monday that in Tennessee and Missouri, the harvest was already 18 percent complete.

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Todd Hatton

Todd Hatton hails from Paducah, Kentucky, where he got into radio under the auspices of the late, great John Stewart of WKYX while a student at Paducah Community College. He also worked at WKMS in the reel-to-reel tape days of the early 1990s before running off first to San Francisco, then Orlando in search of something to do when he grew up. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Murray State University. He vigorously resists adulthood and watches his wife, Angela Hatton, save the world one plastic bottle at a time.

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