© 2024 KRCU Public Radio
90.9 Cape Girardeau | 88.9-HD Ste. Genevieve | 88.7 Poplar Bluff
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Corn Plantings Still Behind Schedule

This year, Missouri has reported a 28% decrease in corn crop yields due to the devastating summer drought.
Samantha Powers
/
KRCU

Chilly temperatures and wet conditions have put farmers behind schedule this year. Only 28 percent of Missouri’s corn acres and 17 percent of Illinois’ have been planted. By comparison, both states’ farmers had planted over 90 percent of their acres at this point last year.

Indi Braden is an agriculture professor at Southeast Missouri State University. She said the weather has not been cooperating.

“This year we’ve been hit with a lot of moisture, so people have to wait until their crop is actually dry enough and the soil is actually dry enough to get out and plant,” Dr. Braden said. 

“We’ve also been dealing with some cold temperatures, so you wait until the growing degree days actually hit the right temperature before you can actually put your seed in the ground and hope that it will germinate instead of wasting your money, wasting  your time,” Braden said.

It’s still not too late to get a good crop, as long as farmers can plant their corn before early June.

“We’re still OK for a couple of week looking at how much corn acreage is planted,” Braden said. “The middle of May is really the focus you want to look at for corn. If we get too late into May and heading into June, that’s when farmers get really concerned.”

In the 18 largest corn producing states, only 28 percent of corn acres are planted, as compared to 85 percent during this time last year.

Soybeans are also behind schedule. Only 1 percent of Missouri soybean acres are planted, but Braden said there is plenty of time to make up lost ground.