CHAMPAIGN – Extremely wet weather that lasted well into the growing season meant that many Illinois farmers delayed planting crops such as corn and soybeans well into June.

Now, the University of Illinois’ College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Services is asking farmers to let its extension know how the season went.

The experts hope to get “information from all over the state,” said Emerson Nafziger, professor emeritus at ACES.

“In some places, they planted earlier, but I don’t think any farmers finished planting within their normal time frame.

“We’ve (had) late planting before, but we’ve never had this amount of crop plant this late” across all of Illinois, he said.

Nafziger said ACES is asking farmers to complete a simple survey about how much and when they planted and what the yields were for crops, especially corn and soybeans, planted at different times. The survey is not a scientific study and ACES is not seeking information about specific hybrids.

“For very low cost, and really not much effort on any individual farmer’s part, we can just get a bunch of information that matches yields with planting dates, and that’s all we’re really looking for,” he said.

“If we do get delays like this again, I think we will be better informed about what people might do and maybe even when they ought to stop planting altogether and just say well, we know that if we plant corn in the third or fourth week of June, it’s just not going to yield enough to make it worthwhile.”

For information or to complete the survey online, go to https://extension.illinois.edu/nwiardc/2019-delayed-planting-impact-study.