Corn planting still lags behind average

WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) -- Corn planting is well off the pace of its five-year historic averages, with just 62 percent of the acreage planted, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

On average, 82 percent of the acreage has been planted by this week of the year. Only North Carolina reports acreage 100 percent planted. A critical corn state, Indiana, reports only 24 percent planted against a historic average of 83 percent. Only 20 percent of the crop in Illinois has seed in the ground. Historically, at this point, Illinois averages 92 percent completion.

Planting of soybeans, often a replacement crop for corn when planting is delayed, is 25 done compared to a five-year average of 44 percent for this week of the year.

The winter wheat crop is progressing near its historic average with 56 percent of the crop headed out, compared to 60 percent in recent years. As of last week, 9 percent of the winter wheat crop was reportedly in excellent condition, while 67 percent was in fair to good position, putting the crop just slightly behind where it was a year ago during this period.