Give them a few good days and U.S. farmers can do amazing things when it comes to getting their corn crop in the ground.

This afternoon, USDA reported that for the 18 states that accounted for 92% of the corn acreage last year, 71% of corn acres were planted as of yesterday, May 19. While it doesn’t match up to last year’s 95% that was planted as of that date, it certainly is a big leap from a week earlier when only 28% of corn acres had been planted.

The 5-year average is 79%, so U.S. farmers were only 8% off the pace.