Apr 17, 2019
Cold and Wet Weather Stalls Early Planting Progress in Midwest
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Two strong late-season snow storms moved across the Midwest last week. The first one brought heavy snows and high winds from Nebraska to Wisconsin. The second one on Sunday brought record snow across the central Midwest and heavy rains across the South. Needless to say, not much planting got accomplished last week across the Corn Belt.
In the Crop Progress Report released on Monday, the 2019 U.S. corn crop was 3% planted compared to 3% last year and 5% for the 5-year average. Nearly all the planting progress last week was recorded in the southern areas. Farmers made some progress planting corn in the mid-South with Tennessee 16% planted (average is 14%), Kentucky is 8% (average is 8%), Missouri is 6% (average is 15%), and Kansas is 6% (average is 14%).
The only Midwestern state with any corn planted last week was Indiana at 1% (average is 1%). The average corn planting in Illinois at this point should be 4%, Iowa 2%, Nebraska 2%, and Minnesota is 2%.
It looks like the U.S. corn planting will remain behind the average pace for at least the next two weeks. On Monday April 22, 2018, the U.S. corn was 5% planted with a 5-year average of 14%. If you move forward to Monday April 29, 2018, the U.S. corn was 17% planted with a 5-year average of 27%.
Currently, the U.S. corn is 3% planted, which is 2% behind the average pace. By next Monday, the U.S. corn might be 5-6% planted, which would put it 8-9% behind average. By April 29, the U.S, corn might be 14-15% planted, which then would be 12-13% behind average. These are guesses of course, but I think it would be safe to say that corn planting will remain behind average for at least the next 2 weeks.
Generally, you would like to see about 50% of the U.S. corn crop planted by May 10th and about 80% planted by the third week of May. Therefore, there is still time to get the corn planted in a timely fashion if the weather starts improving over the next week or two. If the weather does not significantly improve by the end of April, then the situation becomes much more interesting.