The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News - Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties

With a sense of normalcy hard to come by these days, you can forgive northwest Iowans for finding comfort recently in a very familiar spring scene.

Corn began sprouting in some local fields over the past week. With great planting conditions and light precipitation this spring, farmers have been taking advantage by blitzing their fields.

According to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, 91 percent of the state's corn crop had been planted as of Monday with 71 percent of soybeans in the ground.

"What a great start, particularly in light of the struggles of establishing a c...