Corn And Soybean Planting Done, Some Germinated, More To Come

Trent Brandenburg is happy to have completed his corn and soybean planting by the 15th of May. “It’s slow,” he said, commenting on the germination delay by the recent cool temperatures. Moderately heavy rains the last few days have caused some ponding. “Some of the ponded areas are still trying to emerge,” he continued, “So I’ll have to wait a week” to decide on
possible replanting.
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The Illinois Drouth Map shows abnormally dry in about the south 10 counties of Illinois’ 105 counties. Extreme drouth is confined to the southernmost two counties. The Illinois subsoil moisture measurements at Champaign at the 4-inch depth show all April and May measurements above the median, excellent for germination if the temperature was warmer. At the 8-inch level, the April and May measurements were all within the middle 50% of measurements. However, at the 20-inch depth, all measurements were below the middle 80% of all measurements, with about half of them setting new record low numbers. So the extreme drouth is still lurking in the subsoil in central Illinois.
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