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| IL Farmers Break Corn Planting Record |
The pace at which farmers are planting corn in Illinois now has a place in the record books.
The USDA's weekly crop report says 73 percent of the corn crop is in the ground, a gain of 39 percentage points compared to the previous week. The percentage of corn planted surpassed the previous high for this time of year, 67 percent in 2005. Just four percent of the corn crop was planted last year at this time, and the current total far surpasses the five-year average of 28 percent.
Corn planting in western Illinois advanced to 61 percent last week compared to 23 percent the week before. Corn is 83 percent planted in the southwestern crop district, which is the state's highest total.
The state received an average of 1.57 inches of rainfall. USDA crop statistician Mark Schleusener says that was a welcome break.
"Near the end of (last) week, rains pretty much stopped planting around the state," Schleusener said. "We had reports of farmers who were stopping their planting because it was too dry. They were having to put the seed down too deep. So, this rain in general is a good thing, especially for the 73 percent of the corn that is already in the ground."
The western crop reporting district received 2.78 inches of rain last week, the most in the state. Farmers still had nearly five days suitable for fieldwork.
The average temperature in the region was 56.8 degrees, or 1.3 degrees warmer than normal. The statewide average was 56.1 degrees.
Farmers also made some progress planting soybeans. Five percent of that crop is planted so far across the state, ahead of the one percent average from last year and the five-year average. Soybean planting in western Illinois began this week 3 percent complete. |
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| 04 30 10 by Newsroom |
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