After a Months-Long Slog, Arkansas Corn is Finally in the Ground

By Ryan McGeeney

While the wet spring of 2025 continues toward summer, nearly all of Arkansas growers’ corn is, at last, in the ground.

According to a May 26 U.S. Department of Agriculture report, the state’s growers reported that 98 percent of planned 710,000 corn acres had been planted.

Jason Kelley, extension wheat and feed grains agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said that despite a strong early start to the season, the near-weekly periodic rainfalls across the state complicated growers’ efforts through much of the prime planting window.

“It’s been a challenging year,” Kelley said. “A lot of that corn planted in March ended up being replanted. It’s been wet in a lot of areas since April 1. We’ve had a few days here and there to get everything done.”

Of the 265,000 corn acres that had been planted in Arkansas by the end of March, approximately 53,000 acres were replanted after major rain and flooding events in early April, according to USDA.

“There’s a number of farmers who thought they were going to replant corn, who, now that we’re at the end of May, just never really got the chance and are sticking with their original suboptimal stand,” Kelley said.