April 19th...

Corn planting has begun. We started on Wednesday evening, April 7th. Storms were looming but it was time to ensure the planters would be ready the next time the fields dried out. We successfully planted 20 acres and were quickly chased out of the fields by extreme lightning and a down pour. Three days later the fields were dry enough to resume planting and we were able to plant for a complete week non-stop. While we welcomed the dry planting period we were actually getting unusually dry for this time of year. At one point last week we were forecasted to have a 70% chance of rain; to which we missed. As luck would have it, the rains did finally arrive this morning and we are in the minority of farmers in Illinois that are glad to see it. Many local neighbors are starting to wrap up corn planting and a few have even already begun planting soybeans. We have 30% of our corn to plant which will not take long once field work resumes.

Corn seedling one week after planting.