Farmers across Iowa are bracing for planting delays after wet conditions limited field work following harvest last fall and prevented them from making up time this spring.

“We did get some oats planted last week before it got wet again,” Ida County Farm Bureau member Sam Bennett said last week. “There’s been a little anhydrous ammonia going on, but it’s been plenty wet.”

Statewide, oat planting was at its slowest pace since 2013, a year when prevented planting issues were common, according to the USDA’s first crop progress report of the spring. Nearly two-thirds of the state reported surplus topsoil moisture.

Chris Ten Napel, a Sioux County Farm Bureau member, said fields were beginning to dry out on top but became soaked again after an inch of rain fell last week.

“Our tile lines are running full bore,” he said. “It’ll be like last fall. We’ll probably have to go around some wet spots, but it’ll get done.”

Chilly temperatures...