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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 9:04 PM CDT
Crops forecast â€” good/excellent

By MARY COX

“Rain, rain go away, come again another day” was definitely a tune that farmers were singing this planting season. With the rain that came, it saturated the fields and caused flooding, which kept farmers out of the field. Once the fields dried out enough, some farmers were faced with replants. It seemed as though the crops were never going to be planted.

Despite the prolonged planting season thanks to Mother Nature, corn and soybeans are currently in good to excellent condition. Approximately 75 percent of both corn and soybean crops are receiving this rating. According to the latest weekly crop condition report, corn and soybean development remains about 10 days to two weeks behind the average season.

Corn production is forecasted at 12.3 billion bushels, down 6 percent from last year, but 17 percent above 2006. Yields are expected to average 155 bushels per acre, up 3.9 bushels from last year. If the yield holds true, it would be the second highest on record, behind 2004.

Production would also be the second highest on record, behind last year. As for Illinois corn production, it is projected to be at 2.029 billion bushels with an average yield of 172 bushels per acre, down three bushels from last year.

Soybean production is forecasted at 2.97 billion bushels, up 15 percent from last year, but down 7 percent from the record high production of 2006. With that number this could be the fourth largest production on record. Yields are expected to average 40.5 bushels per acre, down 0.7 from 2007.

As for Illinois soybean production, it is projected to be just under 376 million bushels at an average yield of 43 bushels per acre, down one from last year.

With the rocky start we had this spring, it looks as though the fall will bring a smoother ending to this crop year — let’s just hope there is not an early frost!

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