Planting is well underway in most states, and USDA’s recent Crop Progress report paints a mixed picture for planting progress nationwide. While the northern tier of states has barely started planting, eight states across the Midwest, Mid-South and east are seeing the quickest soybean planting pace ever.
Nationwide, USDA-NASS shows as of Sunday, April 30, corn planting is right on track with average. And while soybean planting is well ahead of average, it’s not a record planting pace.
According to USDA-NASS, the eight states currently planting soybeans at the quickest pace farmers have ever seen include:
- Arkansas
- Illinois
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Missouri
- Tennessee
- West Virginia
- Virginia
Lance Honig, chief of the crops branch at USDA-NASS, says as of May 2, 2021, farmers had 24% of the soybean crop planted nationwide. While that’s a quicker pace than this week’s 19%, Honig points out it’s never an exact comparison since the days change from year-to-year.
“When you look at soybean planting progress, there’s not much history to compare to, quite frankly. Usually, we’re not really getting going until now,” he says.
Missouri’s pace is 29 points ahead of the average planting pace, and Illinois farmers are 24 points ahead.
Farmers say the weather is aiding the decision to plant earlier than ever, but so is the yield incentive. It’s a change of mindset for Missouri farmer Dave Nail, who’s been farming 54 years and never planted early soybeans until this year.
“I’m kind of old school, and I didn’t always like to start until about May 10, but with the ground conditions and everything, as well as the technology on the beans now, it’s just changed so much. It seems like when you can get them in early, the better off you are with yields,” says Nail.
Nail isn’t alone. Mershon says he’s talked to farmer after farmer who is planting soybeans earlier than ever.
“We started planting soybeans yesterday. I used to always tell everybody, we had to wait till after Mother’s Day,” he says. “Just make sure that the ground was ready and everything else, but our ground’s working so good, it’s like, why not? Let’s go ahead and start.”
Whether it’s a larger trend of more farmers planting soybeans early, or a testament to how dry the spring weather has been in those states where the soybean planting pace is ahead, 2023 is proving to be another year of firsts.
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