Every season, we conduct a series of harvest surveys across the crops and regions we cover, then include the results each week in our newsletters.

This year, I’m also posting the results on our web site for anyone who might not receive our newsletters.

These reports cover Sunbelt crops:

• Cotton in the Midsouth, Southeast and San Joaquin Valley.
• Rice in the Midsouth and Texas.
• Peanuts in the Southeast, Midsouth and Texas.
• Southern grain crops, including soybeans, corn and grain sorghum.

There’s nothing scientific about these surveys. We work off of basic survey forms (available to our readers on line or via fax). We ask about harvest progress and yields. People can comment on how the season is turning out or what factors influenced production the most, good or bad.

We do think the reports give an overview of how the crop is turning out. Rice groups have lately complained that USDA is overestimating the size of the crop and, based on a string of comments from our readers, that’s likely the case. The reports this year also paint a more positive picture for a good deal of the Southeast than we’ve seen in the last couple of years. Some of the comments about hurricane damage really underscore how much a lot of folks were hurt.

Click on the following link if you’d like to look at the comments that we've posted so far:

http://agfax.com/news/agricharts_static/harvestreports.php

I’ve tried to make the comments as “scanable” as possible. They are loosely in order from the most recent reports down through the page to the oldest. The oldest go back to about mid September. The most recent ones are grouped according to when people responded. The earlier ones are grouped by newsletter.

We’re updating the reports twice a week, usually on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Owen