Minnesota farmers make progress

Posted at 3:34 PM on May 9, 2011 by Mark Steil
Filed under: Farms

Minnesota farmers made their best planting progress of the spring last week, but the pace is still far behind normal.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says 28 percent of the state's corn crop is planted, compared to one percent a week ago. Farmers normally have 65 percent of their corn crop planted this time of year.

About 18 percent of the state's spring wheat crop is in the ground, compared to three percent last week

Farmers also made progress in other parts of the country. The USDA says 40 percent of the nation's corn has now been seeded.

The slowest progress is in the eastern corn belt, mainly Indiana and Ohio. Iowa saw the fastest progress last week, farmers there planted almost two-thirds of their corn crop in the past seven days.