Corn planters started poking out of machine sheds and farm shops last week as soon as the sun appeared after two weeks of cloudy, rainy weather that blanketed most of Iowa.

"People want to plant corn next week, if not sooner," Angie Rieck-Hinz, Iowa State University (ISU) Extension field agronomist in north central Iowa, said last Thursday. She said she saw a couple of planters parked in farm yards as she traveled home from a meeting. "People are getting itchy with the sun out."

An exceptionally...