New numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show Illinois corn and soybean crops are continuing to make good progress. Figures for the week ending July 8th show 81-percent of the Illinois corn crop is rated either good or excellent. (Specifically 32-percent of the corn was rated excellent and 49-percent good.)
Seventy-two percent of the Illinois soybeans are rated good or excellent. (Specific numbers rated 25-percent of the soybeans as excellent and 47-percent good.)
Statewide the average temperature was 76.7 degrees last week, which is 1.2 degrees above normal. Eighty-percent of the topsoil moisture is rated adequate, and 8-percent has surplus moisture. Only 2-percent of Illinois’s farmland is very short of moisture, with another 14-percent rated short and needing some rain.
And statewide there were 5 suitable days for fieldwork last week.
[These photos of corn and soybean fields were taken July 10, 2018 near Bismarck in Vermilion County.]
