U.S. farmers picked up the planting pace across the country in the last week, but the Northern Plains continues to lag behind. USDA has the U.S. corn crop at 72 percent planted. The Money Farm market analyst Luke Swenson says a lot can happen if there is a decent planting window. “Corn planting went from 29 percent planted to 49 percent to 72 percent. I think that was a slight surprise for some. If you look at the Northern Plains, North Dakota is sitting at 20 percent and Minnesota is at 60 percent complete, a slight surprise,” says Swenson.” I think people are going to continue to digest that and more progress should resolve production fears. U.S. soybean planting is at 50 percent is only slightly behind average.” U.S. spring wheat planting is behind the pace at 49 percent complete. “North Dakota is a huge weight holding things back with planting only 27 percent complete. Growers in central North Dakota are ignoring wheat planting and trying to get corn in, but what do we actually wind up with for acres? That’s the curious playout. Barley is the same story.” Swenson says northern farmers are going to play Russian Roulette of what acres will be planted to what ground in the next few weeks.
