C. Brook Hurst's parked the planter on his farm in northwest Missouri. Last year, it was a sign of a successful planting season as soybeans were in the ground by the end of May. This year it signals a sluggish soybean planting season as wet weather continues to keep farmers out of the fields.

"We would be done by now," Hurst, who farms near Tarkio, says of both corn and soybean planting. However, rains halted planting. "For a time we were getting three-quarters or an inch every three days," he says. Over the last two months, he has seen upwards of 14 inches of rain. "There were weeks I did not even look at a planter."

Planting progress

GARDEN SPOT: Here in east central Missouri some farmers finished up soybean planting and the plants are already out of the ground. However, many soybean farmers might be getting a little nervous as the USDA Missouri Crop Progress Report shows just 23% of the state's soybean crop is in the ground compared to the 74% this same time last year.

With all of the wet weather delays, Hurst waits with just 20% of his soybean acres sown. Actually, for the area, his farm is above average.

According to the recent USDA Missouri Crop Progress Report, farmers in northwest Missouri planted just 11% of the soybean acres to date. The only other area that is worse than the northwest corner of the state is the west central area at just 10% of soybeans acres sown.

Overall, Missouri has just 23% of the soybean acres planted. Farmers are well behind last year, when 74% of the acres were already in the ground. This year, farmers have only hit the half way point of the five year average.

The garden spot of the state is in east central where farmers reported 45% of the soybean acres planted.

Staying the course

Hurst is taking the delays in stride. While tired of driving around mudholes and burying tractors to the axles, he will stick to the game plan and plant Group 3 soybeans into no-till acres. Frankly, he has experience planting late, very late.

A couple of years ago, floodwaters came across the farm not once, but twice. "We planted as late as July 4," he says. However, he is not looking forward to a repeat. He would like to finish a little earlier this year. All he needs is about 12 days of dry weather. The good news is when it dries up his planter is ready.

But he will make one minor adjustment with the plan. "I will be planting faster."