Nebraska corn 57% planted, 4% emerged

Nebraska corn farmers had 57 percent of the corn crop planted as of yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its weekly crop progress report this afternoon. That's a big jump from only 15 percent planted last week – and continued good weather will allow farmers rapidly advance that figure this week. Some farmers, in fact, have already moved on to soybeans (15 percent of the state's soy crop is planted, 1 point ahead of the five-year average).

If you follow USDA's estimate that Nebraska farmers will plant 9.5 million acres of corn this year, then Nebraska farmers planted about 4 million acres of corn in the last seven days.

A year ago Nebraska farmers had 74 percent of their corn planted, but last spring's weather was nearly ideal. The five-year average is 62 percent planted by this date.

USDA also noted that about 4 percent of Nebraska's corn crop is emerged. That figure will jump this week, too, with warmer weather spurring things on.

Nationally, USDA said 40 percent of the corn crop is planted, a good jump from last week's 13 percent but still behind the five-year average of 59 percent planted. A year ago 80 percent of the crop was planted. Iowa saw the biggest jump in planting this past week – moving from 8 percent planted a week ago to 69 percent this week, matching its five-year average. (FYI - That means Iowa farmers planted about 8.5 million acres in seven days – more than 1 million acres a day!)

Some states are still lagging, but it is only May 9 and there is plenty of time to get corn in the ground.

USDA said 7 percent of the nation's corn crop had emerged, off from 36 percent last year and 21 percent for the five-year average.

This week's photo comes from the Imperial FFA Chapter and shows corn plants just emerging from the soil. It's part of the Nebraska Corn Board's 2011 crop progress photo set on Flickr. Be sure to check out more photos and details of the crop year at the Board's Crop Progress Update page.