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Planting progress all over the board, but still ahead in south central Illinois

Gary Berg of St. Elmo tells Brownfield some farmers in the area are done planting, some have crops emerging and others may just be getting started.

“We’re probably over half done with corn and maybe 1/4 to 1/3 done with soybeans -way earlier than what we were last year. It was so wet last year, I don’t think we did hardly anything till the end of May.”

He says this spring is the opposite, as the fields are a little dry.

“I’ve been holding the tillage tool drivers up so I can stay pretty close behind them to, believe it or not, conserve moisture here this early in the year. I’m planting an inch and 3/4 to two inches, hoping if we do miss the rain that corn will still be down in the moisture.”

But Berg says his biggest concern is whether commodity prices will hold steady enough to make up for high input costs.

Brownfield’s Rhiannon Branch interviewed Berg from his tractor cab while planting a corn field Wednesday.