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Indiana corn, soybean planting running behind average pace

Planting has come in spurts for west-central Indiana farmer Kevin Cox.

After a solid week of progress, he says rains have him sidelined again. “The unknown is when we’re going to get back to running here,” he says.  “We’re just a couple of days away from having all the beans in the ground.  And then we’ll be all two or three days getting the rest of the corn in the ground and we’ll have things finished up.”

According to the latest crop report from the USDA just 8 percent of Indiana’s corn crop has been planted, that trails last year and the 5-year average. Soybeans are also 8 percent planted, running 7 percent behind last year’s pace and just a percent behind the 40year average. 

Cox tells Brownfield despite the rain delays he’s not too worried. “Back in my dad’s day, the day that you get across the field, that was the day you needed to be planning, regardless of what the forecast was,” he says.  “With this technology, we’re able to cover a lot of acres in a very short amount of time. And so we can be a little more focused on what the forecast is.”

Winter wheat is 61 percent jointed, 7 percent headed, and 78 percent rated good to excellent.  Topsoil moisture is 94 percent adequate to surplus, and subsoil moisture is 89 percent adequate to surplus.