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Illinois corn planting progress quickens

Illinois farmers have been busy applying anhydrous as fields continue to dry out and temperatures warm up. Corn planting is just 5 percent complete as of Sunday. That’s well behind the 5 year average of 22 percent. Scott County farmer Jeff Schone is in his west central Illinois fields and tells Brownfield that the harsh winter was good for something.

“I’ve heard it said that if you have a cold winter where it freezes pretty deep and everything and it seems like once it does thaw out in the spring of the year it seems like the ground is kind of mellow and it seems like it does work a little better and it’s not the first year I’ve seen that happen,” said Schone, from his sprayer preparing soybean ground with pre-plant burndown herbicide. “There must be something to that.”

Oat planting in Illinois is about half done and 3 percent of the sorghum is in.

Topsoil moisture is 89 percent adequate to surplus. And although cold, wet ground has kept many Illinois growers out of the field until now, Schone is pleased with his progress.

“I know a few years back we were done by the 10th of April and of course last year it was the end of May before we got corn planted, maybe the first part of June, so most years if they could tell me what time frame would you like to plant in, I would say from the 20th of April to the first week or two in May would be ideal,” he said.

Illinois winter wheat 77 percent fair to good. It’s 14 percent excellent.

AUDIO: Jeff Schone (4 min. MP3)