Continued wet conditions slowed farmers from making progress in planting the state’s two main crops. The latest U.S.D.A. crop report says most fields were too wet for machinery to get into them last week. East-central Iowa was the only area of the state which had a full day suitable for fieldwork.
Farmers were only able to plant an additional three percent of the corn crop statewide during the week. Corn planting now stands at 88-percent complete, behind the five-year average of 99-percent. Seventy-three percent of the corn crop has emerged, well behind last year’s 98-percent and the normal 91-percent.
Forty-four percent of the soybean crop is in the ground, trailing last year’s 99-percent and the five-year average of 91-percent. The report says 23-percent of the soybeans that’ve been planted have emerged — the lowest emergence at this time of the year since 1996.