The latest crop report shows a big part of the planting season is done. The report from the U.S.D.A. shows 98% of the corn acres have been planted, with a few farmers replanting corn that was washed out by April rains.
The report shows 81% of the corn crop has emerged, which is one week ahead of normal. Twenty-one-percent of the corn is rated excellent and 60% is rated good. Just 1% is rated very poor and 2% poor.
On the soybean side, planting jump up 46 percentage points to make the work 85% complete. That’s ahead of the 69% of the beans that were planted at this time last year and well ahead of the 5-year average of 60%.
The report says farmers in north central Iowa planted 55% of their beans last week, the most in the state. So far, 26% of the beans have emerged, which is ahead of last year’s 16% and the 5-year average of 13%.