Slow Start To Farming Season

Agriculture officials say planting of corn and soybeans in Muskingum County and the rest of Ohio is off to a slow start, with only about a third of the corn crop and 10 percent of soybeans in the ground so far. The Columbus Disptach reports that the U.S. Department of Agriculture says corn crops were 20 percentage points behind the five-year average for planning as of Monday. Soybeans were 18 percentage points behind the five-year average. The newspaper says cold wet weather has made fields unfit for planning the state’s two largest crops. Near-perfect weather last year allowed farmers to plan about three-quarters of their corn over the same period.