Spring Planting off to Slow Pace
Farmers are facing serious challenges with getting the crops in the ground this Spring. Extremely wet field conditions are not allowing producers to make progress. There are many areas across the region with water standing.
It's just not drying out and to make matters worse, there's more rain on the way for Wednesday (5/8). The National Weather Service is forecasting upwards of an inch of new precipitation.
Normally an inch of rain would be no big deal, but with the ground saturated like it is and even standing water, an inch could even cause more flooding in some spots.
With hardly any days suitable for fieldwork, farmers are way off the pace with Spring planting. North Dakota reports only 1% of corn planted with South Dakota not planting any. And Minnesota at a mere 2% of corn in the ground.
All three states fore mentioned have not started at all with planting soybeans. Farmers are anxiously waiting for "go time".