By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

PEORIA, Ill. — Fields are wet and farm machinery stands idle in central Illinois, frustrating growers eager to take advantage of expected near-record prices for their corn crop this year.

“With rain and cold weather in the forecast it looks like it will be several days before farmers will have an opportunity to begin the spring planting season,” said Patrick Kirchhofer, director of the Peoria County Farm Bureau.

“On average, the ideal time to plant corn is the last two weeks of April. If we get into mid-May and very little corn is planted there will likely be a reduction in corn yields this fall. Reduced yields could mean a reduction in profits.”

Illinois farmers are expected to plant a record 12.9 million acres of corn in order to take advantage of ethanol-fueled record prices, but wet conditions that may delay corn planting could result in a shift to more soybean acreage.

“If it stays wet and cold, some of those corn acres will never appear,” John Hawkins, a spokesman for the Illinois Farm Bureau, told the Associated Press.

“As it is every year, farmers can plan, but Mother Nature has a way of changing those plans,” added Rebecca Richardson, director of operations for the Illinois Soybean Assoc.

State climatologist Jim Angel said flooding will be a concern in portions of the state over the next several weeks, and the National Weather Service will be closely monitoring the situation.

Bob Frazee, a natural resources educator for the University of Illinois Extension’s East Peoria office, said that for the past several weeks most areas in central and northern Illinois have been experiencing heavy amounts of rainfall, ranging from 2-5 inches.

“As a result, as of April 1 virtually all soils in north-central Illinois were completely saturated,” Frazee told Farm World. “Warm, dry temperatures will be needed in order for soils to dry adequately for farmers to begin seedbed preparation and start planting without causing major soil erosion problems.”

Frazee warned that while the itch of spring may be too hard to resist for some farmers anxious to begin fieldwork, they run the risk of excessive soil compaction that could lead to substantial yield reduction if entering their fields before they fully dry.

He issued guidelines for farmers wishing to avoid field damage that could arise from early planting.

“The most obvious preventive measure is to avoid, if at all possible, both heavy wheel traffic and tillage of soils that are too wet,” Frazee wrote in an Extension news release.

“In many years, the greatest amount of soil compaction is caused by the very first trip across the field in the spring, whether this may be applying pre-plant anhydrous ammonia or starting spring tillage.

“Although the soil surface is dry, and you may even see wind erosion occurring, usually only the top one-inch or so of the soil profile is dry. The rest of soil profile is usually still saturated with water and is very susceptible to compaction. Allowing the soil to dry for just one or two more days can significantly minimize compaction problems for the rest of the season.”

Frazee said that with today’s high-powered tractors and large dual tires, farmers are more tempted to take their equipment through some areas of their fields where water may still be standing; the resulting puddle soil, reduced infiltration and drainage and poor plant growth can be blamed on the farmer, not the equipment, he said. “Recent University of Illinois studies have shown that deep soil compaction, below the depth of tillage, persists for many years and is expensive and often impractical, if not impossible to remove,” Frazee said. “Preventing soil compaction from occurring is the key.”

Frazee issued the following recommendations for farmers to minimize the severity of compaction in a wet spring:
•Keep out of fields whenever they are wet.
•Reduce the number of tillage passes.
•Reduce surface pressure by using wide tires, duals, or tracks.
•Minimize tractor weight.
•Maintain minimum tire inflation.
•Space wheels to follow the same path by using a controlled traffic system.
•Avoid oversized equipment.
•Keep wagons, trucks and other unnecessary equipment out of the fields.
•Combine field operations into one trip, such as applying herbicides and liquid fertilizer.
•Improve soil drainage by installing surface and sub-surface drainage systems.
•Consider adopting a long-term no-till farming system.