When it comes to planting, it’s a sprint not a marathon.
After an unwanted slow start, farmers in the southern two-thirds of Iowa shot out of the blocks last week thanks to warm and dry weather to get a lot of corn seeded. Some producers finished and switched to soybeans.
Northern Iowa farmers, who needed to wait for spring snow to disappear and topsoil to warm up, still have fertilizer applications to finish or just started planting. For them, with rain in the forecast through Thursday, it’s a race to preserve yield potential.
Seventeen percent of the state’s expected corn crop — 13.3 million acres — is planted, according to Monday’s weekly U.S. Department of Agriculture Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report. Soybean planting is underway with 2 percent of the projected 9.8-milion-acre crop in the ground, the report said.
Corn planting statewide is three days behind last year and four days behind the five-year average, according to the report. Jeff Frank, an Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) district 4 director from Auburn, is ahead of the pack.
