U.S. Corn Planting Is Slowest on Record for This Time of Year
U.S. Corn Planting Is Slowest on Record for This Time of Year
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. corn planting has never been this late after storms battered the Great Plains and Midwest and kept farmers out of their fields.
As of Sunday, only 49% was in the ground, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released Monday. That’s the slowest pace in records dating back to 1980. Last week, the most widely grown American crop was only the furthest behind in six years.
Some farmers are now facing deadlines to get their crop in the ground in order to still be covered by federally backed crop insurance policies. They can still plant corn, but after certain dates based on geography, their fields no longer qualify for policies that protect against drops in crop prices or weather events that cut harvests.
Soybean plantings also have been delayed by a deluge of rainy weather so far this year -- the last 12 months were the wettest on record in 48 U.S. states, according to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. As of Sunday, only 19% of the U.S. soy crop was planted, compared with 53% at the same time in 2018.
Highlights from the report:
- Corn emerged from the ground 19% vs 10% last week, 47% a year ago
- Soybeans planted 19% vs 9% last week, and 53% a year ago
- Soybeans emerged 5% vs 24% a year ago
- Spring wheat planted 70% vs 45% last week, and 76% a year ago
- Spring wheat emerged 26% vs 10% last week, and 34% a year ago
- Cotton planted 44% vs 26% last week, and 50% a year ago
- Winter wheat 66% g/e vs 64% last week, and 36% a year ago
- Kansas 60% g/e vs 56% a week ago
- Click here to see the Bloomberg survey conducted prior to this report
- Click here to see summary table
To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Hirtzer in Chicago at mhirtzer@bloomberg.net;Dominic Carey in Washington at dcarey5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Attwood at jattwood3@bloomberg.net, Millie Munshi
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.