It's no secret that it's been a slow start to the planting season this year. Heavy rain and cool weather during the month of April put farmers a little behind with getting work done in the fields; especially with corn. Last week, the USDA indicated that only one percent of the corn crop had been planted in Illinois. This week, as of May 5th, the number rises to seven percent. Not much considering nearly 90% of the corn crop had been planted by this time last year. When compared to the 5-year average usually 48% (or roughly half) of corn is already in the ground. The dry and warm weather the past few days has certainly helped and farmers have taken advance of that any way they can. However, most of the fields remain too saturated to really accomplish much. Additional rain, maybe an inch south of Rockford, is expected Thursday and temperatures will dip once again by the weekend. Good news...after that looks like we'll warm up again by the beginning of next week.
What's even more interesting is that out of the 18 major corn producing states in the U.S. only 12% have corn in the ground. To this date last year nearly 70% of the corn crop was planted and the five year average indicates 47% of the corn is usually planted by this time in May. Most of the middle of the country is still dealing with severe to extreme drought and this will likely continue through spring and maybe even into summer. There still is a little time, but the further and further we get into May the higher the likelihood that effects may be seen come harvest time.
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