Corn Planting

 Progress is the key word to this update.  Southern Illinois and Missouri have seen a lot of activity in the past week.  Corn Planting,  soybean planting,  replanting,  spraying,  sidedressing nitrogen, cutting alfalfa, etc.  The dry weather kept a lot of growers from switching intended corn acres to soybeans.  Temperatures have been in the mid 80's and even some lower 90's which has helped push corn and soybeans out of the ground in around 5 days.

One year ago, we were on pace for a record breaking planting season. It is now the mid-point of April, and we are still awaiting reports of significant corn planting in the corn belt. Many states are reporting less that 1% corn acres planted. Nationally, the corn crop is only 2% planted, well behind the 16% of 2012, and significantly behind the 7% of the 5-year average. Soybean progress is not even being reported yet. The chart below illustrates the difference from last year and the 5-year average, compared to the reports issued for the week ending April 14, 2013.

An amazing amount of planting has been done in the few short days afforded us in this region to get the crop in this year. We are getting plenty of practice, as this is at least the 3^rd year in a row that most farmers have had a tight planting schedule.  Most farmers are done with corn. The slowest areas are in southern Illinois where it has been the wettest, but even there, great progress was made last week with most growers at least 80% done. Other areas that are not complete mostly involve replanting drowned out areas.