Area farmers are taking advantage of the warm weather this week by jumping into the tractor and getting their 2023 planting season started.
Brendan Marshall, crop specialist with West Central FS says that it is a little drier in Warren County than other areas of west-central Illinois.
“It’s not overly dry. we have good moisture, grounds working out nice. We have been doing a lot of spraying, there is some planting going in- it’s going in good conditions,” says Marshall.
When determining when to start planting, Marshall likes to look at air temperatures and what the weather forecasts are predicting for the upcoming weeks. Another method farmers use is soil temperature.
“I got online and looked at the University of Illinois research farm just west of [Monmouth],” says Marshall. “And at three o’clock yesterday afternoon, bare soil four inches was about 62 degrees and four inches under sod was in the upper 50’s.”
With the forecast rain and thunderstorms Saturday, many farmers have remained cautious when planning their planting schedule, but Marshall said he expects next week to be a big week for planting.
Since the 2022 harvest ended, farmers have been preparing for the 2023 crop. Tillage decisions made for the fall and spring are made with specific goals in mind.
Marshall shares how tillage decisions can play a role in what farmers are planting.
“I always have people that have limbo acres that they can go with either corn or soybeans. Right now they are sticking to their original plan with the same amount of corn on corn and the same amount of beans. That can change if we have a big run in the market. With the tillage aspect, a lot of my beans are going in no till or minimum till with Burndown on afterwards. And corn, usually the minimum amount of tillage we can do and then corn-on-corn usually uses a chisel plow and are trying to do away with some of the residue.”
Written by Kailey Foster
