Marion County farmers have fallen behind their normal spring planting schedule due to all the rain that has hit South Central Illinois in recent weeks.
Marion-Clinton County Farm Bureau Manager Brad Conant says while most of the state is wrapping up planting, that isn’t the case locally.
“We’re not really hitting the panic button at this point,” said Conant. “I think we’ve been spoiled the last few years being able to get the crop out in the field planted early. We’ve hit some late planting periods for the crop insurance side of things, too… That is one of the dates that just passed on June 5. There’s still more to be planted out there. There’s a lot of people in the county, myself included, that don’t even have a bean in the ground yet.”
Conant feels with a dry week area farmers will be able to catch up rapidly. He anticipates some farmers will probably be starting the winter wheat harvest while completing the soybean planting.
“There’s a lot of wheat that is down and is going to be a challenge to harvest this year… some of the wheat that they had in late May… they were suggesting there was going to be some really good wheat out there. I would have to say there are some quality issues in our part of the state where the storms come through. For some of those fields, there will definitely be an impact.”
Statewide, the last Crop Progress and Condition report had 89-percent of the corn planted and 78-percent emerged, and 81 percent of the soybeans planted and 58 percent emerged. 96-percent of the winter wheat crop is now headed.
