Farm

Last week, most of the state experienced cooler temperatures and below-normal rainfall compared to previous weeks.
Temperatures averaged 54.1 degrees, which was 2.2 degrees below normal.
Statewide precipitation averaged 0.46 inches, which is 0.40 inches below normal. The rainfall was heavier during the weekend, enabling a good amount of fieldwork to be completed during the week. Days suitable for fieldwork increased to 4.8 days, compared to 3.9 the previous week.

May 31 reporting deadline for crops
May 31 is the final deadline to report fall-seeded crops, according to the Fayette County Farm Service Agency.
Annual reports are required for producers receiving benefits on DEC, ACRE, Federal Crop Insurance, CRP rental payments, commodity loans, NAP and SURE payments.
Timely and accurate acreage reports are necessary to maintain planting history on a farm and to ensure program benefits are not jeopardized.
Late-file reporting after May 31 costs a minimum of $46.

Though not many area farmers have begun planting, plenty are out in the fields doing tillage work or applying anhydrous ammonia.

In this picture, a farmer is silhouetted against the late afternoon sun as he prepares a field northwest of Vandalia on Tuesday. Illinois farmers are planning to plant slightly fewer acres of corn and slightly more acres of soybeans. Nationwide, farmers will plant the highest number of acres of corn in the past 75 years.

Driven by favorable prices, U.S. farmers intend to plant 95.9 million acres of corn in 2012, up 4 percent from 2011, according to the Prospective Plantings report released recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
If realized, this will be the largest corn acreage in the United States since 1937, when producers planted 97.2 acres of corn.