Spring planting nearly completed

Iowa farmers are just about ready to park their planters. The latest report from the Iowa Agriculture Department says Iowa corn planting is now ninety-nine percent complete. The report says the planting progress is just slightly behind last year when all of the corn was in the ground by this time, but slightly ahead of the five-year average of 98 percent complete. Soybean planting increased from 64 to 90 percent complete. That’s slightly behind last year’s progress of 93 percent complete but three days ahead of the five-year average of 86 percent complete. The report says 85 percent of the corn that’s planted has emerged — which is slightly behind last year’s progress and the five-year average of 91 percent. Forty percent of the beans have emerged — that’s behind last year’s progress of 62 percent , and below the five-year average of 61 percent.