While much of Indiana’s farm country has raced through spring planting under unusually favorable conditions, farmers across the northeastern corner of the state are still struggling to recover from weeks of relentless rain, saturated fields and mounting delays that have left tractors parked and seed sitting in storage.
According to the latest USDA Crop Progress Report, 76 percent of Indiana’s corn crop has been planted, along with 74 percent of soybeans — figures that suggest farmers statewide are largely on pace. But those statewide numbers mask a sharp regional divide emerging across Indiana this spring.
South of Indianapolis, many farmers wrapped up planting weeks ago after benefiting from drier weather and longer stretches of workable field conditions. In northeastern Indiana, however, repeated rainfall events turned fields into muddy expanses, preventing heavy equipment from entering fields without risking severe soil compaction and long-term crop damage…