First Crop Watcher 2011 : Not set in stone yet

Todd Easton Coles County April 29 2011: Well its that time of year again and I am glad to be back to share the progress of this years corn, soybean, and wheat crop as it unfolds across Coles County. While the fields were in the midst of their winter rest our family grew shortly before Christmas as Kelly, Maddison, and I were blessed with the arrival of a healthy baby boy named Case William. We came out of a near perfect fall from the standpoint of field preparation although some producers did hold back on Anhydrous application because of very dry soil. Eventually they found a nice window to apply the nutrient during the very last of March and First of April. Also in the first week of the April some planters started across the fields putting the first five percent of the corn crop in the ground while others hesitated due to the forecast of heavy rains and cooler temperatures. Unfortunately that forecast turned out to be quite correct and hasn’t really changed in the three weeks since. Unrelenting precipitation has saturated fields to the point that planters will be lucky to resume sometime within the next couple weeks. The crop that is in the ground has been slow growing because of the coolness of the weather and also suffered considerable damage from flooding. I hate to admit there are a lot of similarities between this spring and the infamous spring of 2009 so far but that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. For now we will have to play the waiting game and hopefully we will end up having a safe and productive season after all.