Article updated: 5/14/2013 7:20 AM

USDA: Corn plantings pick up, but still behind

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A tractor with cultivator sits idle after being delayed by wet weather earlier this month preventing central Illinois farmers from starting their spring planting of corn crops Monday.

Associated Press

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U.S. farmers are making the most of break in the seemingly unceasing spring rains to plant corn, though the pace still remains well behind schedule, the latest federal figures showed Monday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its weekly update of the nation's crop progress, said 28 percent of U.S. cornfields have been planted, more than double the 12 percent of just a week earlier.