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Central IL farmer satisfied with soft start to spring…so far

Central Illinois farmer Jeff Brown is satisfied with his spring so far. 

He tells Brownfield…

“Planting season has been, I would say, great so far.”  He says, “We’ve been able to pick and choose and maybe have a soft start.  Kind of nice to spread our risk out on the planting dates. So far, we’re probably about 80% done with beans, and we got just a little bit of corn in the ground.”

Brown, who grows corn, soybeans, and wheat in Macon & Christian Counties, says the April showers have provided needed subsoil relief.

“You know, we were so dry.”  He says, “Everybody was worried about droughts and now we have tiles running. And so, I’d rather try to grow a crop with the water than without. We tried that in 2012 and that was a rough go.”

He says the weather has benefitted the winter wheat crop, which he says is needed if he wants a repeat of last year.

“It was just perfect, I guess, because I’ve never had 140-bushel wheat before.”  He says, “That makes it come out right on the financial standpoint.  This year we’ll need all the dollars we can get because prices aren’t like they used to be.”

Brown says they’ll look to finish soybean planting as soon as fields conditions allow, and then fully turn to corn.