While some Illinois farmers finished planting earlier than usual this spring, others are still in the middle of a drawn-out season.
Kendall-Grundy Farm Bureau President Bob Stewart farms in DeWitt, Kendall, Piatt and Will counties and got an early start in his central Illinois fields.
“We planted some beans in March in central Illinois, which we’ve never done before, and we put in the beans and commercial corn in pretty good time in April,” Stewart told FarmWeek.
But it has been a waiting game for favorable conditions farther north near his home in Kendall County, where he is behind his usual April planting schedule.
“We’ve been trying to make up for lost time here in the last week and a half and have gotten quite a few of our beans in, but I’m still a little hesitant to put corn in the ground because it’s been cold and wet up here,” he said May 14.
Stewart had most of his central Illinois fields and about half of his northern fields planted as of that day.
“It seems like a long season. Usually, we can get done in three weeks and here we’ve been going for a month and a half with intermittent starts and stops,” said Stewart, who said he needed another week of favorable weather to finish but forecasted rain was likely to lengthen the timeline.
Statewide, more than half of Illinois corn and soybeans have been planted.
USDA’s crop progress and condition report released May 11 showed 54% of corn was planted, in line with the five-year average pace, and 57% of soybeans were in the ground, 10 percentage points ahead of average.
The report showed 30% of corn and 31% of soybeans had emerged, both ahead of average.
Stewart said crops that have emerged look good so far, aside from some frost damage to soybeans near Farmer City that he intends to replant.
Winter wheat fields are 73% headed, which is 20 percentage points ahead of average. USDA rated the condition of the crop 10% excellent, 63% good, 20% fair, 5% poor and 2% very poor.
The final outlooks for May from the Climate Prediction Center indicate higher chances of cooler than normal weather and higher chances of drier than normal weather for the Upper Midwest, including northern Illinois.