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Kansas farmer says soybean crop is in rough shape

A north-central Kansas farmer says his soybean crop is off to a very sluggish start.

Shale Porter tells Brownfield the majority of his crop was planted without moisture and they look ugly. “Where we got them to moisture, they’re up, but where they weren’t in moisture, they were laying in dry soil until about 10 days ago when we got about a 2 inch rain. They finally emerged. I’ve got beans that are fourth-trifoliate beans and then beans that just emerged last week.”

USDA says 82 percent of soybeans are planted, 67 percent has emerged and 63 percent is rated good-to-excellent.

Porter says his corn crop is in better shape. “Our corn that we planted in April looks good. We’ve been catching a lot of recent rain here and there.”

He says he still has dryland corn to plant yet and last week’s precipitation has made it too wet to wrap up.

USDA says 92 percent has been planted, 78 percent has emerged and 62 percent is rated good-to-excellent.

Winter wheat harvest is underway with 5 percent of the crop in, and 14 percent of the crop is rated good-to-excellent.