Getting the crops planted each spring in Iowa is not an arbitrary task. Threats of frost, rain, drought, and soil temperatures are among the issues farmers need to work through each year. The featured chart presents USDA weekly estimates of corn acres planted in Iowa since 1979. A few of the extreme years are highlighted in the upper chart. This year got off to a very early start, but wet weather arrived causing the planting rate to slow. We recently finished a bit ahead of schedule thanks to our recent stretch of dry weather. The lower chart presents the largest weekly jump each year in the percentage of acres planted. It is interesting to note that this value hasn't increased over the years. While individual farmers are easily able to plant more acres in a day, there are many fewer farmers and they need to work more days to cover the larger farm sizes that currently exist.

Voting:
Good = 41
Bad = 11

Tags:   corn   usda