Prolonged coolness and ill-timed rain slowed the planting pace of southeast Iowa farmer Logan Lyon.
“It’s been a gradual spring, so we’ve taken a little bit more time planting than our farm has historically.”
He tells Brownfield.
“It was hard to get really excited when we were getting nighttime temperatures definitely below 50 degrees, into 40 degrees. So it was just hard to find conditions where we could let loose.”
Lyon grows corn and soybeans in Muscatine and Scott Counties and says he finished planting Saturday.
USDA’s latest weekly crop progress data shows corn planting at 72 percent in Iowa, compared to the five-year average of 63 percent. Nineteen percent of the crop has emerged.
Soybeans are 60 percent planted, well ahead of the usual pace of 48 percent.
