While drought conditions are keeping some growers out of the fields, growers in other parts of the country have made progress on this year’s planting. USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey provides an update on corn planting so far this season.
“Getting into the state numbers, Tennessee is showing some remarkable progress again this week. 64 percent of the corn acreage planted, five-year average in Tennessee is just 24 percent. Almost as quick in Kentucky, 48 percent of the corn planted versus 18 percent on average. But in the Midwest, we only have three states showing double-digit planting progress for corn, led by Missouri, 23 percent. But that number has slipped behind the five-year average of 27 percent. We are still ahead of average in Illinois and Indiana. Illinois, 13 percent of the corn planted, Indiana, 14 percent. But some areas did get hit with pretty big storms during the week that slowed down some of that early planting progress,” said Rippey.
Rippey also provided an update on the progress of soybean planting this season, saying, “We’ve already got three states in the South with at least half of their soybean acreage planted, led by Louisiana, 58 percent. Five-year average is just 32 percent. 55 percent of the soybeans planted in Mississippi versus 23 percent on average. And incredibly, Tennessee had 50 percent planted versus just 9 percent on average. The same three states that have double-digit corn planting progress have also achieved that for soybeans, led by Illinois at 20 percent, followed by Indiana, 19 percent planted, and Missouri, 14 percent. All three of those states are ahead of their respective five-year averages as warm soil conditions. And at least in the southern part of those states, relatively dry conditions are contributing to that fairly rapid planting pace for soybeans.”
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.