USDA: Nation’s Soybean Planting Hits Homestretch

Farmers across the nation's midsection are making up for lost time, and are almost done planting soybeans after a soggy spring that put them weeks behind.

The weekly U.S. Department of Agriculture crop progress update released Monday shows that 96 percent of the nation's soybean crop is in the ground. That's just 2 percentage points behind the pace over the previous five years.

The USDA says that Illinois growers are 97 percent finished with their soybean planting, while Missouri growers have 93 percent of the crop sown. In both states, that's a dash ahead of the trend of the previous half decade.

The USDA says roughly half of the corn crop is judged to be good, 11 percentage points higher than a year ago before a punishing drought settled in.