Corn

It has been a busy few weeks here in the west.  With very few weather delays since the first of May a lot of acres have been planted.  Most of the region is setting at about 90% of the corn acres planted.  Southwest Missouri is still having issues with wet soil conditions but growers have put a pretty good run here the last few days.  For the most part our corn planting part of the season should rap towards the middle of next week.

Planting in Ohio is progressing faster than most other states.  I estimate close to 70% of corn in Ohio will be planted by Sunday.  Soybeans are getting a good start now, my best guess is more than 30%.  It seems that some fields are being pushed in a touch on the wet side.  See this LG Seeds article on soil conditions at planting: http://www.lgseeds.com/content/wet-weather-and-planting

Corn planting has finally arrived!  Warm weather and less rain has allowed many growers to return or begin field activities this past week.  As of Friday morning, this region has an estimated 30-40% in the ground, which was close to zero just 4 days ago.  If rains stay away over the weekend, percent planted could double.  Not only has corn planting been a priority for farmers, so has cleaning up fields that suffer from a thick infestation of winter annual weeds, using tillage and herbicides to achieve this.  Black Cutworm moths have been present in traps througho

It has been a record setting, yet a great week for planting in the Plains East.

Sunday night, 5-12-13, record lows were set around many areas.  The temperatures were 32-36 degrees during the nighttime with frost in a few areas.  Corn planting was in the 10-15% completed range overall.  By Tuesday afternoon, record highs were set for the daytime with temperatures reaching 101-105 degrees.  Temperatures moderated the rest of the week in the mid 80’s.  It was a great week for planting the crops.

We are 75% done planting corn in Northern Illinois and a few farmers are switching to soybeans.  If we could go rain free for 3-4 more days most all of the corn will be in the ground.  We have been in the mode of planting for 2-3 days then rained out for 2-3 days.  Most all of our Northern zone is done with corn and had the better spring in our territory.  Western Illinois has been catching more rain and bigger amounts so they are behind a bit compared to a normal year.  Salesmen have done a great job of getting plots planted in this challenging year.  We sh

It is nice to post a progress report that we have actually made considerable progress in getting the 2013 crop in the ground. Planters really started kicking into gear this week and it is amazing with the size of machinery that we have today, the number of acres that can be tilled and planted in a short amount of time.

Planting is progressing quickly in drier conditions. Acres planted to corn in the last couple of weeks have increased from 1% a few weeks ago to more than 60 - 70% in some areas. Northern Indiana has more than a week of field activity, followed by central Indiana. Larger planter units with bulk system seed units and 24 rows or more are covering the acreage at a record pace. Growers in parts of southern Indiana started a day or two ago and are rained out again. Most rain in recent weeks has occurred along the I70 and south.

Planters are rolling in western Iowa and northwest Missouri.  They began to start again last Saturday and some areas have finished planting corn while wetter portions have a good start.  The planting progression follows the Palmer Drought Map with drier portions of the area being more advanced with the start of soybean planting.  Soil conditions have ranged from near perfect to excessively wet and cloddy.  One common factor for all of the area is that rainfall will be important as the season progresses. 

Hopefully the wet and cool spring is now behind us.  Within the last two weeks we have received record May snow totals and record high temperatures.   Parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin reported over 12 inches of snow on May 2^nd; on Tuesday May 14^th temperatures reached 102_°F in Southern Minnesota.  Although planting is well behind last year’s record pace, we are starting to make significant progress across the two state region.

In the past month we have experienced soil replenishing moisture, (actually excessive amounts that caused severe flooding in some areas) and sometimes in the form of snow and ice.  Cool and cold temperatures have slowed soil heating, but soil temperatures are finally, and slowly, coming up to acceptable levels for crop planting and seed germination.  Corn acres are being planted, and soybean acreage is increasing also.  Nationally, the corn crop is now 28% complete, as opposed to last year, when 85% was in the ground the second week of May.  This lags the 5 year avera