Weather Keeps Planting on Hold

BY DAN GRANT, FARM WEEK NOW

Corn planting in the top-producing ‘I’ states remains on hold as subfreezing temperatures and a combination of rain and snow events continues to keep most farmers out fields.

Planting progress in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa was stuck at zero percent complete the first of this week despite scattered reports of some limited fieldwork activity.

That was 5 percent behind the average pace in Illinois, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service Illinois field office.

“April is shaping up to be one of the coldest in the last 120 years in the Corn Belt and northern Plains,” said Todd Hubbs, University of Illinois ag economist. “Through April 7, over 75 percent of the prospective planted corn acres contained soil too cold and too wet to start planting.”

The statewide temperature averaged just 35.6 degrees the first 11 days of April, 12 degrees below normal, according to Jim Angel, state climatologist with the Illinois State Water Survey.

Soil temperatures subsequently averaged between 35.7 degrees in northern Illinois the first of the week and 50.8 degrees in east-central Illinois to a high of 53.4 degrees in southern Illinois.

Farmers typically wait to plant corn until the soil temperature reaches and consistently remains above 50 degrees, the point at which corn begins to germinate.