Ag News
Crop planting delays reach historic levels
Posted on Jun 05, 2019 at 0:00 AM
In many parts of the country, the weather just isn’t cooperating for farmers. All across the Midwest record-breaking precipitation is causing headaches for farmers with flooding of fields and excess soil moisture. As a result, tractors are getting stuck in mud, fields are completely under water.
The USDA’s May 28 release of the Crop Progress report showed historic delays in corn and soybean plantings across farm country. Many acres are, or soon will be, eligible for prevented planting payments through crop insurance policies. The U.S. is looking at the biggest event for grain and oilseed markets since the drought of 2012. The combination of record-breaking extreme weather alongside continued policy uncertainty has agricultural economists across the board scratching their heads trying to figure out how everything will shake out.
The USDA report showed historic delays in corn and soybean plantings across the country. Looking at the five year average, typically at this point in the year corn planting would be 90% complete, but this year farmers have only planted 58% of their intended acres. This translates to nearly 39 million acres of corn still waiting to be planted.
Soybeans are planted later than corn, but so far are showing a similar pattern, largely falling behind the five-year average. The U.S. is only 29% complete on planting soybeans, while the five-year average is 66%. As of May 28, there were still 60 million acres of soybeans that farmers intended to plant that are not planted.
For more details visit https://gfb.ag/19plantingdelays.
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