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| Corn and Soybean Harvest Picks Up |
Cooler temperatures and below average precipitation last week in the state allowed farmers to move forward with the crop harvest.
The USDA's weekly crop report shows the corn harvest increased by six percent last week to 10 percent statewide, and 77 percent of the crop is mature now compared to 100 percent a year ago. The soybean harvest is a little further along at 22 percent statewide, a gain of 16 percent last week. While both crops have made good progress over the past two weeks, there are some parts of the state where the fields are still too wet to get into.
Mark Schleusener, deputy director of the National Agricultural Statistics Service Illinois Field Office, says a wet spring has left the crop harvest behind schedule. "The planting delays in the early spring, and all the way through May and even into June, have caused this crop to be later than usual throughout the season, from planting through emergence, through the corn silking," Schleusener said. "Every stage of development has run two to three weeks behind normal in Illinois this year."
The corn harvest was 71 percent complete last year at this time, and soybeans were 61 percent harvested. The state's sorghum harvest is also underway, and a small percentage of the winter wheat crop has emerged.
Most farmers had six days suitable for fieldwork last week, with rainfall on average more than a third-of-an-inch below normal. It was also cool last week; the average temperature statewide was just under 57 degrees, or 3.4 degrees cooler than the norm for this time of year.
More dry weather is in the forecast this week, which should help the state's farmers continue to make good progress with the harvest. |
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| 10 08 08 by Newsroom |
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