Wet weather kept some farmers out of the fields

The weather hampered field work in parts of Iowa this past week. The weekly report from the State Agriculture Department says heavy rains in northern and north central Iowa kept some farmers from getting into the fields. Those in southern Iowa missed the heavy rains and were able to get more planting finished in the drier conditions. There was progress in planting soybeans, as the report now says 70-percent are in the ground, compared to 45-percent last week. Progress on the beans is still well behind last year at this time when 85-percent were already planted. The report says 76-percent or the corn has emerged from the ground, up from 41 percent a week ago, slightly above the five-year average of 72-percent. The corn growth is a little behind last year at this time when 88-percent of the green seedlings had already poked out of the ground.