Mild weather earlier this month helped producers make progress planting corn, but then rain forced farmers out of the field.

That's according to a report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service's Nebraska Field Office.

Corn planting was catching up with last year, but cool soil temperatures were causing slow germination and emergence.

Meanwhile, the cold conditions in the Panhandle damaged sugar beets that had emerged. They will have to be replanted.

Slow alfalfa growth may cause first cutting to be below normal.

But wheat conditions continue above last year and the five-year average. Some losses from winter injury and disease have been reported.