Corn planting winds done; focus turns to beans

ST. LOUIS — Corn growers across Illinois and the rest of the nation’s midsection appear to have finally gotten their crops in the ground after an uncooperative, storm-prone spring left them weeks behind schedule.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s weekly crop progress report shows 95 percent of the nation’s corn crop had been sown as of Sunday.

Some 85 percent of that crop has emerged, up 11 percent from the previous week. But it still falls short of a year ago, when virtually all of the newly planted corn already had broken through the ground.

Farmers now largely are turning their full attention to soybeans. Seventy-one percent of that effort is done nationwide, a 14-percent improvement from a week earlier. A year ago, 88 percent of the soybeans were in the ground.