Ken Ferrie covers planting progress and emergence in this week’s Boots In The Field Report. Much-needed rain came for most of the Midwest and will help reduce a lot of service calls on all the seed that was sitting in dry soil. Bean stands are looking good and indicating a lot will make early flowering. While corn stands look good from the road, Ken advises stretching a tape to see what your stand count and ear count are. While industry standard says growers should shoot for a 13% or less reduction from planted to ear count, Ken challenges growers to strive to keep it under 6% to take their yields to the next level. He also recommends recording and cataloging these early stand and ear counts so they can be reviewed during yield map meetings. Ken also covers how seed chilling, seed quality, and seed orientation play into the emergence issues and advises if growers pushed away a lot of dry soil to plant into moisture and received a good shot of rain this week, to keep an eye out for crusting.