04/26/24 Watching What Planting Pace Says About Yield Potential

This week’s planting progress numbers did not trigger any alarms for the market, as corn plantings were just ahead of their 5-year average at 12 percent while soybeans at 8 percent were double their normal pace.  Even the recently water-logged Delta states had caught up on row crop and cotton plantings. Patchy spring storms have still made for somewhat of a sporadic start to the new planting season, but the moisture has been welcomed after a dry winter for most. As always, the risk will be that rain continues to fall where plantings eventually become delayed while the driest areas of the country could keep missing out.   Many of the areas where we are getting reports of active planting are the same areas that suffer the most from lingering drought. The large patch of long-term drought spreading from Kansas through eastern Nebraska, northern Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin encompasses a portion of the country that is relatively much further along on planting corn and soybeans.  Across most of the Eastern Corn Belt and down throughout the Southeast, drought is not as much of a concern as is the wetter forecast for the start of the planting season. A drier…