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Just 2% of Indiana corn, soybeans have been planted

Wet conditions continue to hinder planting progress in Indiana.

Chris Cherry, who farms in Hancock County, says there is one, maybe two fields that have been planted. “We’ve gotten about 8.5 inches of rain in the last two weeks,” he says. “But the water level is high right now, so half-an-inch kind of seems like an inch of rainfall.”

Just 2 percent of the state’s corn crop has been planted, 5 percent behind last year’s pace and 3 percent behind the 5-year average. Soybeans are also 2 percent planted, with planting pace 4 percent behind last year and 1 percent behind the 5-year average.

He tells Brownfield we need to string together a couple of weeks of dry weather. “So we can get work done, but stringing nice days together has been pretty tough,” he says.  Cherry’s operation is primarily no-till, and he says they were able to get some spraying done last week.

Forty-three percent of Indiana’s winter wheat crop is jointing, and 77 percent of the crop is rated good to excellent. Topsoil moisture is called 96 percent adequate to surplus and subsoil moisture is 89 percent adequate to surplus.