Some farmers in the eastern Corn Belt have seen the earliest ever start to soybean planting season, while soil temperatures lingering below the critical 50-degree threshold are waiting for a warmup. In general, planting progress has been fairly brisk based on largely warmer-than-normal temperatures in March that paved the way for large early strides in parts of the Plains and western Corn Belt. While many farmers report good progress, others say the continued drought and resulting restrictions on irrigation capacity is severely hampering early crop development. In northeast Colorado, for example, farmers report having access to around 5% of their normal irrigation allotments because of ongoing drought conditions there. Farmers in the Southeast are facing the opposite problem; farmers who made a lot of early planting progress have been stalled because of frequent rainfall in places like eastern Arkansas. See all the latest updates from the field.