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Wet conditions delaying start of planting season for Ohio

A southwest Ohio farmer says wet conditions are delaying the start of the 2025 planting season.

Jim Percival raises corn and soybeans in Greene County.

“It’s very, very wet,” he says. “We had 6 inches of rain there a couple weeks ago, and people have just stayed out of the field.”

He tells Brownfield he’s hopeful to get into the field within the next week.

“The ground is just really saturated,” he says. “It’s still awfully muddy, so I would say we’re a week to 10 days out.”

This week’s weekly crop progress and condition report from the USDA shows Ohio’s winter wheat crop is 12 percent jointing, compared to 46 percent last year. Winter wheat is 59 percent good to excellent, down one percent from last week. Nineteen percent of oats are planted and one percent of the state’s oat crop has emerged.

Topsoil moisture is 100 ​percent adequate to surplus and subsoil moisture is 96 percent adequate to surplus. There were 0.6 days suitable for fieldwork in the week.