Iowa farmers made up a lot of time planting last week with a stretch of dry weather. The latest crop report from the U.S.D.A. shows 71-percent of the corn is now in the ground — an increase of 56-percent compared to last week’s report.
Even with that progress, the corn planting at this point in the spring remains well behind the 97-percent that was in the ground last year, and also behind the five year average is 92-percent.
Soybean planting is 16-percent complete, well behind the 78-percent that was completed at this time last year. The wet weather has helped the soil moisture, with just three percent of the topsoil moisture reported as short. Just two percent of subsoil moisture was reported very short and 13-percent short.