Updated corn report

Monday afternoon the USDA released its latest Illinois Weather and Crops report.  Only 7% of the corn crop in Illinois had been planted last week, but there's been a slight improvement this week with the number jumping up to 17%.  Of that 17% only 2% has actually emerged. Not the greatest, but it's been nice to see farmers actually getting into the fields.  We are, however, still well behind our five year average when roughly 64% of the corn crop is planted by the second week of May.  This is a very critical week because typically anything that gets planted after the second week of May usually experiences a drop in yield come harvest time.  There have been years in the past when farmers were able to get in roughly 30%-40% of their corn within a week, but the conditions have to be completely ideal for that.

Source: USDA

Northern and Eastern Illinois have had a little better progress in planting than the rest of the state because the soils have been dry enough.  Of the 18 major corn producing states in the U.S. only 12% of the corn crop has been planted with only 5% actually emerging.  When looking back over the past 10 years this year, when comparing percentage numbers, looks similar to 2009 when only 13% of the crop has been planted by the second week in May.  Hopefully these next few days will allow farmers to continue to plant.  Further south across central and southern Illinois the outlook may not be as good as more rain and thunderstorms are in the forecast; especially for areas south of I-80.