It has been quite wet across a wide swath of the US corn production area this year. Planting progress has been slowed by relatively frequent and relatively heavy rains throughout April and May. Combined with cooler than normal weather in April and May and flooding along a number of rivers in the Midwest, it has been difficult, to say the least, to get corn planted.
This chart shows the “Planting Progress” for 12 major corn producing states as ranks the 5 “slowest” planting years since 1980 for each state. As you can see, 2019 is setting some records for “slow planting” with Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin setting new “slow planting” records for week 20 (May 19th, 2019). The US set a new low record for planting progress on corn for week 20 also. For week 19, it was the 2nd lowest percent planted, but with little progress made in week 20, it is now the first time that less than half the corn is planted by the end of week 20.
Other states showing slow planting progress are: Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
By state, Illinois leads the way with more than 8.5 million acres of corn still unplanted as of May 19th. Indiana, Iowa and South Dakota all have more than 4 million acres unplanted. In total, these states have 42.2 million acres of corn yet to plant. For most of these states, there are only a few days left to plant before crop insurance guarantees start to be reduced. It is a race against time, and the “second lap” of planting soybeans should be going strong now, but that is even further behind than corn.
