Read more articles from Richard Brock

The April 16 weekly USDA crop update showed that U.S. corn producers made very little progress planting their crop last week as cold, wet conditions limited fieldwork across the Midwest.

According to USDA, 4% of the U.S. corn crop had been planted as of Sunday, up just one percentage point from a week earlier and 5 points behind the five-year average.

USDA reported no planting progress across the major corn states of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota, meaning that less than 1% of the crop had been planted in all of those states.

For Illinois, the planting progress of less than 1% compares with progress of 7% a year earlier and 14% for the five-year average.

On average over the past 5 years, 4% of the Iowa crop, 5% of the Indiana crop and 1% of the Minnesota crop were planted as of April 15.

Nebraska planting was barely underway with 1% of the crop in the ground versus an average of 3%.

Topsoil moisture ratings suggest many fields in the eastern Corn Belt will have to dry out before producers can plant much. Topsoil moisture was rated surplus across 39% of Illinois 60% of Indiana and 66% of Ohio.

Conditions appear more promising in Iowa and Nebraska, where topsoil moisture was rated 16% and 8% surplus respectively.

Editor’s note: Richard Brock, The Corn And Soybean Digest's Marketing Editor, is president of Brock Associates, a farm market advisory firm, and publisher of The Brock Report.

To see more market perspectives, visit Brock's Web site at www.brockreport.com.