Rain can be the ultimate, unpredictable factor for several outdoor activities, especially for area farmers.

Paton farmer Pat Fields says he has all of his corn seed planted which is earlier than when he had it planted last year.  He started planting corn on April 25th and was finished by May 7th.  Last year, he had corn planted by late May.

It only takes Fields about four days to plant corn, but he was held up this year because of the week’s worth of rain that his fields received towards the end of last month.  And even during this past week, Fields believes he took on more rain than what he would’ve liked.

“We needed a little bit of rain, but I don’t think we needed that much.  I’d like it to dry off again and I didn’t think we were that bad off but I just assume it would stay dry and we keep getting the work done.”

According to the National Weather Service, Jefferson had about 2.67-inches of precipitation on Monday which created standing water on his cropland.

 In fact, he states that his yields last year were hurt more by the over abundance of rain than from the drought.

Fields started planting his soybeans earlier this week.