Missouri corn planting ahead of other states

Missouri farmers learned from last year’s planting season they are ahead of all other states in the nation for corn planting, according to the USDA Crop Progress Report. With rain predicted for the next two weeks, that’s a hopeful sign for the 2016 crop, according to University of Missouri Extension agronomist Bill Wiebold.

Wiebold said 2016 planting is far ahead of the five-year average for Missouri, with 58 percent of the Missouri corn crop in the ground.

Farmers remember being in the bull’s-eye of wet weather in 2015, when only 15 percent of the corn crop had been planted by the end of April, Wiebold said.

“Missouri corn growers jumped on it this year and took advantage of the good planting conditions,” said MU Extension corn specialist Greg Luce.

MU Extension Commercial Agriculture climatologist Pat Guinan says the April 12 map from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows abnormally dry conditions for much of the state and severe drought in a few west-central counties. That could be a liability for growers.

Departure from normal precipitation throughout the state is significant, some of the highest in the country, despite record-setting wet months of November and December, Guinan said.