It was very difficult in the spring of 2009 to get soils fit for field work.Rains in late April and early May tended to compress clay soils to the point that under the top inch or two they remained gooey and pasty and just refused to dry out.When they did strong drying winds caused then to go hard in the top one to two inches.Roughly 1/3 of the corn crop got planted by May 10th on the lighter and loamier soils. Clays planted prior to May 11th weren't truly fit. If they were planted compaction from wheel traffic could be seen like shown in the photo above and sidewall smearing was inevitable in many areas.From May 11th to May 20th roughly 60% of the remaining Southwestern Ontario corn crop went in the ground though the clays really only came around to work well by roughly Thursday May 14.