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Most of Iowa’s crops are in the ground according to USDA

Ag/Outdoor

May 22nd, 2012 by Ric Hanson

The latest crop report shows a big part of the planting season is done. The report from the U-S-D-A shows 98-percent of the corn acres have been planted, with a few farmers replanting corn that was washed out by April rains. The report shows 81-percent of the corn crop has emerged, which is one week ahead of normal. Twenty-one-percent of the corn is rated excellent and 60-percent is rated good. Just one percent is rated very poor and two percent poor. On the soybean side — planting jump up 46-percentage points to make the work 85-percent complete. That’s ahead of the 69-percent of the beans that were planted at this time last year and well ahead of the five-year average of 60-percent. The report says farmers in north central Iowa planted 55-percent of their beans last week, the most in the state. So far 26-percent of the beans have emerged, which is ahead of last year’s 16-percent and the five-year average of 13-percent.

(Dar Danielson/Radio Iowa)