Illinois was declared officially “drought free” by the U.S. Drought Monitor this week. While 12 northern Illinois counties are still rated as abnormally dry by the Monitor, much of the state has endured wet, cool conditions for April.
“The frequency of precipitation this month has been remarkable,” tweeted Illinois State Climatologist, Trent Ford, on Friday.
Illinois farmer Steve Pitstick offered his unusual take on how to gauge whether soils are fit to plant:
Ford adds, “the 20 wet days (so far) this month are the most on the long record in Macomb, nearly twice the April average.” Macomb is in northwest Illinois, close to the Iowa and Missouri state lines.
Widespread precipitation accompanied by cool conditions this past week led to a reduction or elimination of abnormal dryness in many states, according to Brad Rippey, U.S. Drought Monitor co-author.
“In fact, a pesky area of (drought), stretching across portions of eastern Iowa, northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin was finally eliminated by soaking rainfall,” Rippey writes. “Drought was also completely removed from northern Minnesota, following another round of heavy precipitation.”
By April 24, topsoil moisture was rated one-quarter to one-half surplus in all Midwest states except Iowa, led by Illinois (49% surplus, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture).
Some farmers tweeted on Friday they have planted little to no crop so far. USDA says only 7% of the intended U.S. corn acreage had been planted by April 24—the least amount sown by that date since 2013.
“Corn seeding was at least 10 percentage points behind the 5-year average planting pace in Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota and Missouri,” Rippey reports.
“This has the potential to be one of the highest – if not the highest – ROI years of your farming career, so remember this: We pay taxes by the calendar, but we prepare and plant corn based on the field soil conditions,” says Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist and owner of Crop-Tech Consulting, near Heyworth, Ill.
His advice: “Don’t let the calendar, coffee shop or the neighbors tell you when to go to the field. Go when you know your fields are ready.”
Certainly, some farmers are struggling with too little moisture this spring. A look at the Drought Monitor shows that the western half of the U.S. is almost completely enveloped by various levels of dryness, some of it extreme.
Ann Bruntz, Friend, Neb., noted in a retweet she was praying for rain as her husband, David, planted corn on April 22. Because of the dryness and extreme dust, he said if it hadn’t been for auto-steer he would have had difficulty staying on track.
“We wouldn’t have been able to see our mark if we were still using markers yet. I guess technology has helps us on that, but we still need rain. Planting 2022. Have a good day,” he said, signing off.
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