Farmers Gaining Ground on Corn

Nebraska and Iowa farmers made up for some rain-delayed corn planting last week.

By Sunday, Nebraska growers had seeded 31 percent of the expected acreage this year, up from 9 percent a week earlier and near the 33 percent at that time a year ago. They were still below the 47 percent average for the date.

Iowa planting was up to 18 percent. A year earlier 42 percent of the crop was seeded. The historical average for the date is 64 percent. West-central Iowa growers had 37 percent planted and southwest farmers were at 26 percent.

"We made up a lot of ground," Mindy Williamson, spokeswoman for the Iowa Corn Promotion Board and Iowa Corn Growers Association, said Tuesday. She was referring to what can be done with even a few days of good weather combined with today’s big, acreage-eating machinery.

Williamson said she was not hearing anything yet on whether farmers will opt to plant more corn than the first estimates made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The estimates made March 31 indicated farmers would plant less corn this year than last, rotating instead to soybeans. Williamson and Don Hutchens, executive director of the Nebraska Corn Board, said last week they expected a shift back to corn.

Farmers are concentrating now on making up for the rain delays and they still have some time to decide what to put into unplanted acres, Williamson said.