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Illinois spring planting cool and slow
Posted: 05.03.2011 at 11:06 AM
Melissa Shriver

Melissa Shriver is a News Anchor and Reporter for KHQA.

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QUINCY, ILL. -- Cool temperatures and wet weather this spring are causing some issues for farmers during planting season.

Some farmers haven't gotten into the fields at all, while some fields that were planted aren't fairing so well.

Wet and unseasonably cool conditions are making for a questionable crop year. Planting conditions aren't ideal right now with downright cold soil temperatures.

But  farmers are forging ahead with or without mother nature's help.

Read more about planting in Illinois.

Damp and drizzly weather has held Adams County farmers like Dennis Dempsey at bay until now.  He is taking to the field to get things moving before the short window for corn planting closes. But conditions in the field still aren't ideal right now.

Dempsey said, "It's abnormal for the soil to be this cold in May but we're into May and that means we're going to plant and know that is has to warm up sometime."

He's one of the lucky ones. Some farmers sit on the sidelines because of wet field conditions. All antsy to get started...because time is not on their side.

John Wood Community College Agriculture Department Chairman and Instructor Gary Shupe said, "Research has shown that after May 10 for every day planting occurs after that point the yields will be reduced, not a tremendous amount of reduction, but it gets bigger the further away from May 10 we get."

Farmers are behind already. Normally 27 percent of corn is in the ground already in Illinois, right now it's only at nine percent.

What corn is in the ground was planted in early April. That's sort of an unorthodox move for farmers to plant that early, but after the wet years we've had in the past, any dry time is a good time. Dempsey already has two thirds of his corn crop in.

But what corn has sprouted is encountering some problems. Much of it is yellowish in color and isn't growing very fast.

Shupe said, "Down the road it may be a problem in the stress that it went through during that time and could result in lower yields but that is unpredictable at this point."

Despite uncooperation from Mother Nature, range rovers like Dempsey aren't swayed.

Dempsaey said, "Farmers are an optimistic bunch we always think its' going to turn out okay and that's what we're doing."

Another potential problem for gardeners and farmers is frost expected tonight.

There aren't any concerns about getting other crops like soybeans in the fields because they takes a shorter time to mature.

 

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