Fifth-generation grower Keith Holland took over running his father’s farm near the southern Illinois town of Coulterville about 10 years ago, and he believes the start of the 2015 growing season is unique.

“Across the board, you couldn’t ask for better conditions up to (last) week,” said Holland, who has all 350 acres of corn and 400 acres of beans planted. “The weather cooperated nicely, rain came at the right times and not the wrong times, so we were able to prep the ground and do what we needed to do without any glitches.”

Statewide in Illinois there was similar progress recently, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) weekly report. As of May 17, about 94 percent of corn growers intended to plant was in the ground.

Last year just 83 percent of the corn was in at the same time, and this year’s rate is far ahead of the five-year average of 82 percent.

The emerged corn rate is far ahead of past years, with three-quarters of the crop out, compared to less than half emerged the week before and well above the 53 percent average for this time of year. The pace of planting and emergence during the past three weeks has been impressive, said USDA crop statistician Mark Schleusener.

“Farmers can plant a lot of ground faster than they used to, so there were several open times when producers went go, go, go and got a lot of crop in the ground,” he said. “And so far, everything’s looking pretty good.”

Soybeans are ahead of past rates, as well, with NASS reporting 47 percent planted and about 14 percent emerged. Five-year averages are 36 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

It’s early in the season, but corn conditions already were rated as 82 percent good or excellent. The amount of winter wheat headed more than doubled in the past week, up to 70 percent from 34.

Temperatures and rainfall totals, statewide, were slightly above average compared to five-year averages, but as of Friday temperatures had dipped below average across the state. “That’s what we don’t want to see happen right now,” Holland said. “some nice, warm days would be the perfect continuation to the near-perfect start we’ve had.”