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U.S. producers made very little progress planting their 2008 corn crop last week as cool, wet conditions continued to limit fieldwork.

Monday afternoon’s USDA weekly crop update pegged planting progress at 4% as of Sunday, up just two points from a week earlier and well behind the five-year average pace of 17%.

The USDA planting progress figure fell short of trade expectations, which ranged from 5% to 9% complete.

According to data recorded by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), the planting pace is the slowest since the “100-year flood” year of 1993, when planting progress was at 4% as of April 25.

Planting progress in the No. 2 corn-producing state of Illinois was pegged at only 1%, against 9% a year ago and a five-year average of 29%.

In top-corn-producing Iowa, no planting progress was reported against a year-earlier pace of 6% done and the five-year average of 12%.

Brisk winds and continued wet conditions allowed little or no fieldwork last week in Iowa, according to the state office of NASS. Fertilizer applications, at 55% complete, were five percentage points behind last year and 11 points behind the five-year average.

Planting is lagging worst in Missouri, were it advanced only two percentage points last week to 4% done, more than three weeks behind the average pace of 53% complete.

Editor’s note: Richard Brock, The Corn And Soybean Digest's Marketing Editor, is president of Brock Associates, a farm market advisory firm, and publisher of The Brock Report.