Corn planting has caught up nationally at 81-percent done. However, portions of the northwestern corn belt continue to lag. South Dakota farmers have planted 66-percent of the corn crop, which is a 45-percent jump from the previous week, but still behind the 81-percent average. Goodwin farmer Todd Hanten says it’s been a cold, wet and frustrating spring.
He says complicating the delays is the difficulty getting fuel and fertilizer, with bottlenecks in the northwestern corn belt. And the late planting date will also mean lower yields for corn at his farm.
Soybean planting is ahead nationally at 56-percent, but in South Dakota it’s behind at 24-percent compared to the average of 44-percent. Hanten says while soybean planting is closer to normalat his operation, with the wet field conditions he’s concerned about emergence.
The spring wheat crop also went in late and Hanten says he had to abandon a few fields he was going to plant and switch those to soybeans. Spring wheat planting progress has caught up at 79-percent nationally at 94-percent in South Dakota.
