On Tuesday afteroon, the USDA released its weekly planting progress report. Progress in corn planting is still behind this time last year, but starting to catch up as Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio made up significant ground over the last week. Any unexpected delays in planting could lead to a significant shift of acres to soybeans.

82% of the corn crop is already in the ground for the 18 primary producing states, compared to 86% last year. Current progress is still well below the 5 year historical average of 93% for similar time periods.

Planting in spring wheat for the 6 primary producing states is currently at 79%; well behind the progress last year of 97% and the historical average for this time period of 95%. For the 18 primary planting states of winter wheat, roughly 68% of the crop has been headed up to this point compared to 61% last year and the 5 year historical average of 71% for this time period.

The updated progress report also showed that approximately 45% of the winter wheat crop is in good or excellent condition; down from 48% last week and compared to 47% at this time last year.

Corn prices were up roughly 1% from last week at $4.28/bushel and soybean prices were up 3% to $11.86/bushel. Year-over-year corn prices are down 28%, wheat is down 19% and soybeans are off 12%.

- Colvin