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| Farmers Gaining On Last Year's Corn Total |
Another week of good weather in two-thirds of the state is allowing farmers to get most of their corn planted.
The most recent crop report from the USDA says the last week of May was pretty good for both corn and soybeans. Eighty-two percent of the corn crop is in the ground as farmers gained 20 percentage points last week, and in the past two weeks, they've planted 62 percent of the crop after an awful start to the season. Corn was 91 percent planted last year at this time.
USDA crop statistician Brad Schwab says persistent rain in some parts of the state continues to cause problems.
"Variable weather patterns were the norm once again last week including above normal precipitation in six of the nine crop reporting districts and allowing an average of only 3.5 days suitable for fieldwork. Many farmers in the northern districts were able to finish up corn planting even if it was done in less than ideal conditions."
Schwab says heavy rain in southern Illinois brought corn planting to a halt, resulting in some corn acreage having to be replanted. Two of the four southern districts received more than two inches of rain and the other two had between 1.89 and 1.94 inches. Rain totals in western Illinois averaged 93-hundredths of an inch, which was 17-hundredths of an inch below normal for the end of May.
Crop progress in the region is in line with the state average, with 82 percent of the corn crop planted. Thirty-four percent of the Illinois soybean crop is planted and six percent is emerged. Western Illinois farmers have 30 percent of their beans in the ground. More than half of the soybean crop had been planted by now a year ago.
Soil moisture content in the western region remains at 100 percent adequate or surplus. Eastern Illinois actually reports some dry conditions in some parts of that region, where 14 percent of the topsoil is rated short or very short of moisture.
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| 06 05 09 by Newsroom |
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