USDA releases 2024 planting forecast for Illinois

Posted on April 4, 2024
Corn growers intend to plant 10.9 million acres in 2024, down 3 percent from 2023. (Facebook/Illinois Farm Bureau)

From USDA

Corn growers intend to plant 10.9 million acres in 2024, down 3 percent from 2023. Soybean planted area is expected to total 10.5 million acres, up 1 percent from the previous year. That would keep Illinois number two in corn and number one in soybeans.

Winter wheat area seeded last fall is estimated at 780,000 acres, down 7 percent from the previous year.

Area planted to oats is expected to total 60,000 acres, up 9 percent from 2023.

Producers intend to harvest 470,000 acres of all hay in 2024, up 15 percent from last year.

WJBC News can be reached at [email protected]

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…