NAPERVILLE, Illinois, May 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. spring planting season has been slowed by persistent wet weather, though the Crop Watch producers were able to make some progress between showers last week, particularly on soybeans.
Between last Monday and Sunday, Crop Watch producers had on average about 3.5 days suitable for field work. Individually, suitable days were much better than in the prior week in Minnesota, Iowa and western Illinois, and North Dakota also had another productive week.
Soils were too wet in southeastern Illinois and Ohio for planting last week, though up to 2.5 inches of much-needed rain in Kansas over the weekend should facilitate good activity this week, assuming fields dry out.
Four of the 11 Crop Watch soybean fields were sown last week: Nebraska on Monday, South Dakota Tuesday, Minnesota on Friday and Kansas on Sunday. Each of those represented the second-latest plant date since these fields have been monitored, which ranges from four to eight years.
The Ohio corn will be planted on Tuesday, weather permitting. That leaves just the North Dakota soybeans, which could be sown later this week or next week. The North Dakota Crop Watch beans were June-planted in four of the previous six years of monitoring, so this year’s field is not yet late.
A Tuesday plant date for Ohio corn would be dead-even with the field’s six-year average.
Crop Watch follows 11 corn and 11 soybean fields across nine U.S. states, including two each in Iowa and Illinois. In the past, all Crop Watch fields were planted before June just twice: 2021 (22-field version) and 2018 (16-field version).
Wet weather will be featured over the next seven days, with rains focused in the western Belt on Monday. Many core areas of the Corn Belt could observe well over 2 inches total this week, though none of the Crop Watch producers are super-behind yet and a few have even finished planting.
Last week, U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed May 12 U.S. corn planting pace 5 percentage points behind the recent five-year average and soybeans 1 point ahead, though soybeans had started on a record pace in late April. Corn had been as much as 5 points ahead last month.
USDA on Monday afternoon will publish planting progress as of May 19. The date’s five-year average for corn is 71%, 10-year is 76%, and the five-year-average weekly gain is 17 percentage points. Corn was 49% planted on May 12, and analysts peg the May 19 pace at 68%.
For soybeans, the five-year May 19 pace is 49%, the 10-year is 48%, and the five-year-average weekly gain is 15 percentage points. Beans were 35% planted on May 12, and analysts peg May 19 pace at 49%.
The following are the states and counties of the 2024 Crop Watch corn and soybean fields: Kingsbury, South Dakota; Freeborn, Minnesota; Burt, Nebraska; Rice, Kansas; Audubon, Iowa; Cedar, Iowa; Warren, Illinois; Crawford, Illinois; Tippecanoe, Indiana; Fairfield, Ohio. The North Dakota soybeans are in Griggs County and the corn is in Stutsman County. Karen Braun is a market analyst for Reuters. Views expressed above are her own. (Writing by Karen Braun Editing by Matthew Lewis)
