Iowa and Minnesota Double Average Corn Planting

A week of cooperative weather set planting at near record pace across the corn belt last week. Corn acres planted jumped to 27%, up from 7% the previous week.

Much of that progress was in two key states according to Chip Flory of AgriTalk Radio.

“A couple of the states really stand out, we’ve got Iowa 39% planted, we’ve got Minnesota at 40% planted, 40% planted in Minnesota,” Flory said. “Both states are about double the five year average pace. This means that in the Last week, Iowa planted about 5.2 million acres of corn. Minnesota planted about 3.3 million acres of corn.”

The rapid pace and dry weather are a welcome change from the rainy 2019 planting season.

“We’ve got more done by April 27 than we did by May 27 of last year,” Flory noted.

It’s not just the wide weather window that sparked a jump in corn acres planted. Farmers like Ryan Meyerkorth of northwest Missouri are reporting very good soil conditions.

“The conditions couldn’t be better for us right now,” Meyerkorth told U.S. Farm Report’s Tyne Morgan.  “The ground’s working like it hasn’t for several years, so we’ve been able to really get after it and get a lot planted here in the last week.”

Myerkorth said he planted 35% of his corn crop last week.

Despite the progress in the heart of the corn belt, there are areas that are behind in planting, and they could stay behind.

“North Dakota hasn’t planted an acre of corn yet,” Flory noted. “Normally, North Dakota would only have 4% of the crop planted, but still, they’re off to a slow start. Pennsylvania, nothing planted, they would normally have about 7% planted. In Ohio, 3% planted versus 8% for a five year average. And those are some of the areas that are expected to see the most rain.”