6/6/19: The New Food Economy published an article last Friday detailing the heavy rain and shrinking planting window facing Midwestern farmers this season.
This year, weather has pushed the planting season perilously close to its limit, says Scott Irwin, an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois. “We’re about 20 percentage points behind the worst years of the last 40,” he says, when it comes to late planting of corn. “We are into uncharted territory.” Usually, by this time of year, farmers have planted 90 percent of their corn. As of Sunday, only 58 percent of the acreage has been planted, making it the slowest year on record, according to Reuters reporter Karen Braun.