I-80 Planting Tour: With Comparisons to 2012, Illinois Farmers Get an Early Start on Planting

From Colorado to Illinois, the race to plant the 2021 crop is on. Mother Nature provided the Midwest with some warm, dry days this week, and that meant farmers got in the fields to plant. 

#Plant21 has officially begun with yellow peas.

3rd year trying them, opening up with a newer variety to see if we can pump yield up some.

Don't forget the snow-capped Rockies in the background.@LucasAHaag @cowsncornag pic.twitter.com/j75Fqr5P3p — Justin Lewton (@j_lew_21) April 5, 2021

Rollin. #beardimplement #caseih #kinze pic.twitter.com/BhByXoGTjD — Logan White (@flatblackdirt) April 2, 2021

“We got started late last week,” says John R. Thompson, a farmer in Lawrenceville, Ill. 

The vigorous start to planting is welcomed by the Illinois farm family that says planting early can pay off. 

“For us, planting this early is average for us,” explains Thompson. “We push the envelope a little bit on the soybeans more so than corn when it comes to planting dates.”

The Illinois farmer says planting soybeans early can pay off with a possible 10-bushel-per-acre advantage. That’s why Thompson was eager to get into the fields, with about 5% of their soybean crop already seeded.  

“We farm a lot of sandy ground, so it tends to warm up a little bit faster and dries out a little bit faster,” says Thompson. “It's definitely time to plant.”

And no matter what the calendar shows, Thompson says the ground is prime for planting now. 

“The ground temperature at about 4" deep yesterday was about 60 degrees, and it was at 65 degrees 2" deep,” he adds. 

A little farther north near Carthage, Ill.,  farmers like Dave Harrell say planting is in full swing. He started planting Monday, and says many other farmers in his area did the same. With rain in the forecast for Wednesday, farmers in that part of Illinois were trying to beat the rain, with 300 acres planted in just a day on Harrell’s farm. 

But with the calendar still set on early April, not everyone is eager to hit the fields. 

“It's just too wet to do any field work yet,” Bradford, Ill., farmer Rob Sharkey – also known as ‘Shark Farmer’- told Farm Journal a week ago. “I guess it makes a decision easy, right? It's almost better to be too wet than just right on the edge, because then you don't have to think about it.”

Sharkey says if his area misses the rain mid-week, there’s a chance they’ll start planting later this week. 

“It does seem as if it has that feeling like it's going to be an earlier planting season, so we'll probably get done by July,” says Sharkey as he laughs.

Neither weather nor the USDA Prospective Plantings report released last week changed his planting plans this year. 

“We rotate 50/50 corn and soybeans, so we're going to stick with that again this year,” the Illinois farmer says. “I've been burnt in the past playing the whole market game. So, I just kind of stick with the 50/50 and see what happens.”

As Sharkey hopes for cooperation from Mother Nature this year, with a possible window to plant this week, farmers further south say soils are growing drier. 

“I would say these conditions, it hasn't been like this since 2012, in my opinion,” says Thompson. “Even low ground - that is traditionally pretty wet-  is drying out.”

And with a 100% chance of rain Wednesday, Thompson hopes those rains fall, even though the majority of farmers just started planting in his area this week. 

“I saw some guys putting anhydrous on last week a little bit, but today and yesterday, there are a lot of bean planters rolling,” Thompson adds. 

It’s a strong start out the gate, in a year sprouting brighter outlooks for the year ahead. 

“We’re super optimistic,” says Thompson. “We think we'll have a pretty good year and luckily we're heavily irrigated so we can kind of control our rainfall a little bit.”

“I would just like some normal weather,” says Sharkey, who said soybean yields struggled in his area last year. “Just something where I can get stuff planted in like a three-week window, that would be fantastic and not draw it out for months. It would just be nice to have some consistency. I know it is what it is when you deal with nature, but that's the hope.”

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