The following is from the Michigan Field Office of USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service for the week ending Aug. 13.
Mild temperatures continued to provide favorable growing conditions and helped crops rebound from extreme rains earlier in the year in central and northern Michigan.
Warm days and cool evenings helped reduce some suffering, but crops were show-ing signs of moisture stress in the southern part of the state.
Corn was maturing nicely in the upper two-thirds of the state. Further south, sections of the corn crop began to turn brown due to lack of moisture.
The corn crop was progressing behind last year and the 5-year aver-age.
Some parts of the state were experiencing white mold in the soybeans, but overall the crop was faring quite well.
Soybeans were developing ahead of last year's pace, but slightly behind the 5-year average.
Producers were combining oats and wrapping up the win-ter wheat harvest.
Sugarbeet harvest will be starting soon and second cutting hay harvest was still underway.
Producers spent their week spreading lime on hay fields, manure hauling, planting cover crops and seeding alfalfa.
There were 6.1 days suitable for field-work.
Fruit
Another dry week has kept irrigation systems running to make up for moisture. Growing degree-day totals have remained about a week ahead of normal while harvest of summer fruit crops has been further ahead of that.
Harvest of mid-season peach varieties continued at a rapid pace; quality continues to be good to excellent.
Tart cherry harvest was nearly complete in the Northwest; growers noted that although fruit quality was generally good, re-cent rains and high temperatures have softened later harvested fruit and reduced brix lev-els.
Japanese plum harvest continued while European plums continued to color and size well.
Summer apple varieties continued to be harvested while later varieties ranged from 2.25 to 3 inches in diameter and continued to color well.
Pears ranged from 2 to 2.5 inches in diam-eter. Grape clusters continued to fill out; growers continued to monitor and treat vineyards for disease and pests.
Harvest of mid-season blueberry varieties was winding down while growers began picking late-season varieties; growers have been trying to stay ahead of the spotted wing Drosophila threat by harvesting ripe fruit quickly, but harvest labor has been a significant problem in some are-as.
Blackberry harvest was underway for summer bearing varieties while fall red raspberry harvest was expected to begin this week.
Vegetables
Pickle harvest continued in the Eastern region. Winter squash and pumpkins were setting fruit. Sweet corn harvest was ongo-ing.
Broccoli and cauliflower harvest continued in the Southeast. Peppers were being harvest-ed with many reports of good quality.
Vegetable growers were advised to continue scouting efforts for late season pests and disease.
Topsoil moisture was rated very short, 15 percent; short, 39 percent; adequate, 43 percent; surplus, 3 percent.
Subsoil moisture was rated very short, 14 percent; short, 35 percent; adequate, 48 percent; surplus, 3 percent.
The crop pro-gress schedule (last week, previous week, 2016 and 5-year average) showed: corn silking, 91, 86, 94, 96; corn dough, 39, 17, 45, 45; corn dented, 3, 0, 1, 4; soybeans blooming, 93, 88, 92, 96; soybeans set-ting pods, 76, 59, 73, 78; dry beans blooming, 82, 66, 87, 92; dry beans setting pods, 52, 22, 69, 67; alfalfa hay, second cutting, 82, 77, 90, NA; alfalfa hay, third cutting, 33, 22, 30, NA; other hay, first cutting, 89, 86, 100, NA; other hay, second cutting, 68, 59, 74, NA; other hay, third cutting, 15, 11, 16, NA; oats har-vested, 51, 33, 50, 60.