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Just enough rain to slow planting

Central Illinois farmer Bill Graff started planting corn last week into what he calls some of the best soils he’s ever planted in to.  “We were getting dry enough, we needed a rain,” he says.  “We had a couple fields that we put on spring anhydrous that were worked corn stalks and they could use the water.  Actually one field, I don’t think we would have planted until we had a shower on it.”

He tells Brownfield they had just enough rainfall to put planting on hold for a few days.  “But we didn’t get a whole lot – we don’t have any water standing,” he says.  “I’ll be honest, I don’t have a rain gauge out anymore, Judi (my wife) has this app called FarmLogs and it gives us a report on how much rain we got on every field.  I just sit back and wait for it to tell me how much rain we got everywhere and I haven’t gotten that email yet this morning.”

Graff says this week’s forecast doesn’t call for a lot of precipitation and he anticipates they’ll be back in the field by Wednesday and if all goes well, could finish up a couple of days later.