As of May 1, nearly half of U.S. corn acres that are expected to be planted during 2016 are in the ground and soybean plantings is just getting started.

In its most recent Crop Progress report, USDA reported today that for the 18 states that accounted for 93% of the 2015 corn acreage, 45% of corn has been planted. This compares with 30% a week earlier and 45% a year ago. The average percentage of acres planted by this date over the past 5 years is 30%

At 13%, the corn acres emerged as of May 1 is ahead of the 5-year average of 8%. The report, which covers the period through this past Sunday, shows that only 5% were emerged a week earlier and 7% on this date a year ago.

Farmers are just getting underway with planting soybeans for 2016.

USDA reports that 8% of soybean acreage is in the ground for the 18 states that accounted for 95% of all soybean acres in 2015. This compares with 3% a week ago, 10% a year ago and the 5-year average of 6%.