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Central IL farmer ready to plant, when weather cooperates

A central Illinois farmer says he’s disappointed with the cool, wet start to April.

Jim Reed, who grows corn and soybeans in Piatt County, tells Brownfield…

“Yeah, I mean, everyone’s got everything kind of locked and loaded and sitting on the sidelines and waiting for the weather to get right,” he says.

He says fields need to dry out, and warm up…

“We can’t be too wet.”  He says, “We don’t want to start out packing the ground down and making it hard for the roots to penetrate. But then of course, soil temperature to make sure there’s plenty of heat underneath the seed, so we have pretty even germination and emergence.”

But he also says he’s not worried…

“I think we’re still early.”  He says, “I mean, we’ve all increased our capacity and our ability to get seed in the ground quick. So, I mean once we get rolling, it can happen pretty fast. You know one good week can get us really just a huge amount of acres and a high percentage in the ground.”

Reed says expected temperatures into the 80’s this weekend should get more planters into fields across the state.