Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPersistent wet weather has left many Indiana farmers well behind in their crucial spring task of planting corn and soybeans.
The delays caused by soggy fields means some farmers are now weighing their options, including whether to even plant corn, which has a longer growing season than soybeans. Others are considering not planting at all and filing crop insurance claims that pay for part of their expected crop revenue.
The federal government's weekly crop report for Indiana shows that just 22 percent of Indiana's corn acreage was planted by May 26. That's far behind the five-year average of 85 percent of Indiana's corn crop planted by that date.
And only 11 percent of Indiana's soybeans are in the ground, putting that crop well behind the five-year average of 63 percent.
Kent Chism, a lifelong farmer who serves on the Howard County Farm Bureau board, told the Kokomo Tribune that this is the latest planting season he’s ever seen.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.