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Illinois farmer says he won’t make a big acre switch this year

The USDA’s prospective plantings report predicted a large switch to soybean acres – but that isn’t the case for everyone.

Martin Barbre farms in southeast Illinois.  “We’re actually switching some of our lighter soils to soybeans,” he says.  “Other than that we’ll stay with our normal agronomic rotation.  We’re pretty much 50/50 corn and soybeans with some wheat and double crop beans mixed in.”

He tells Brownfield the 2017 growing season is off to a good start.  “You know Mother Nature has her way with us during the year – so we’ll see what happens,” he says.

Barbre says they started planting last week and have about 40 percent of the corn and 25 percent of their soybeans in the ground.