Although a few days of consistent rain showers and possible storms are in the forecast, Tom Fricke of the Vermilion County Farm Bureau says farmers getting through planting season feel much better than back on May 2nd; when the state had only about seven percent of its corn and five percent of its soybeans planted.
As of this week, the overall state numbers were right around where they should be; with 78 percent of corn and 62 percent of soybeans in the ground. Fricke says some farmers in Vermilion County are very near done or finished; and certainly are welcoming this rain over the next few days as long as it’s not overdone.
AUDIO: At this point, the hope is that we don’t get too much rain too hard at any one time. That will crust the ground over and make it harder for those seeds and new plants to come up through the ground. So if it’s just a soft, gentle rain the plants will be able to deal with that and still continue to mature.
As for as economics goes, Fricke says there’s not much you can do now about high fertilizer prices; because it’s already purchased and most likely on the ground. But as for high fuel and diesel prices, the big question is: What will it be like in the fall?
AUDIO: Fuel, while it’s used in the spring planting, the big consumer of fuel is the harvest. And so we’ll keep watching very closely and see if we continue to deal with these high, especially diesel prices, as we move into the harvest season; because that’s when the main consumption of fuel happens on the farm.
As of earlier this week, about half the planted corn in the state had emerged, and 27 percent of the planted soybeans.
