NICE WEATHER GIVES FARMERS AN EARLY START

Spring planting is just around the corner.

Early-spring weather has given farmers a jump on planting preparations in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois.

With sunshine and warm temperatures, a number of farmers have been in the fields the past week, said directors of Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Service offices.

"You might say it has just been barely dry enough for tillage," said Terry Birk, director of the office at Jackson. "Temperatures have ranged from the 40s to the 70s. "Farmers usually don't get corn seed in the ground until the first of April, but we may see some early birds this year."

Kenneth Vowels, director in Scott County, agreed. "The farmers are already working," he said. "And one or two corn producers may already have seed in the ground."

Farmers are in a better mood than a year ago.

Vowels and Birk said corn and soybean yields were better last year than the flood-reduced crops of 1993. The flood cut crop production in Missouri by $235 million. More than 1.2 million acres of corn, soybeans, grain sorghum and wheat were lost in 1993, said economists at the Missouri University Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute.

"Everything was about back to normal in 1994," said Birk. "Farmers this year will plant about 35,000 acres of corn and 45,000 acres in soybeans."

Scott County soybean acreages will top the 100,000.

"We raised a lot of soybeans in the county," said Vowels. He said that county farmers would plant about 35,000 acres of corn.

Weather permitting, a few farmers usually do start planting in late March, Vowels said. The majority of corn is usually planted by mid-April.

Farmers have more time for soybeans, which are usually planted in May.

Area farmers are also watching winter wheat crops.

Winter wheat does better when the ground is not real wet. The crop is usually harvested in June. About 20,000 acres of winter wheat is the norm in Cape Girardeau County, with as much as 50,000 acres in Scott County. Stoddard County is one of the large wheat-producing counties in the area, with about 80,000 acres a year. Stoddard ranks third in wheat-producing counties in the state.

"Farmers are hoping for another good year," said Vowels and Birk.

Statewide, a year ago Missouri produced 274 million bushels of corn, up 64 percent from the flood year of 1993. Yields for the state averaged 119 bushels per acre, 29 bushels above 1993 yields.

Yields of more than 250 bushels an acre were reported in Southeast Missouri. Tim and Tom Davis of Perryville harvested 251.5 bushels an acre and Paul Lampher of Advance harvested 250.9 bushels per acre to rank among more than 450 winners in a National Corn Growers Association contest.

"Good corn yields were reported throughout the area," said Birk. "A number of farmers reported yields in the 200-bushel-an-acre range.

Soybean yields in the southeast area and state were also good.

Statewide, soybeans averaged a record-high 38 bushels an acre, the same as the record yield established in 1992. Total soybean production in the state was 173 million bushes, up 46 percent from the flood year of 1993. Farmers harvest about 4.5 million acres.

Good soybean yields were also reported in Southeast Missouri.

Mississippi and Stoddard counties are two of the larger soybean-producing counties in the area, ranking third and fourth in the state, respectively. Both counties plant more than 150,000 acres of soybeans a year.