Excessive water that is delaying spring planting may actually be better for crops.

The top 20 inches of soil moisture is at field capacity, meaning there is as much water in the soil as the soil can hold, said Lyle Paul agronomist at the Northern Illinois Agronomy Research Center.

Discounting the areas with puddles of water over the fields, Paul said the first 20 inches is fully charged with water and has little gravity water, which moves out of the soil.

Mike Hardt, assistant manager at the DeKalb County Farm Bureau, expected there to be a high amount of moisture.

“There’s been quite a bit of moisture,” Hardt said. “Ground water would be replacing pretty well.”
Deeper into the ground – 20 to 72 inches down – there is about 75 percent moisture in the soil available for plants.

Currently, with farming soon underway, Paul said the only thing farmers are worried about is the first 6 to 8 inches.

According to a Thursday soil moisture report by the Illinois State Water survey, values of moisture in the 0- to 6-inch range were normal to slightly above normal.

“Farmers would like to see it drier than it is,” Paul said. “Yet today, soil is too wet to allow for planting or field operations. Few places have gotten work done.”

Farmers will need the subsoil, which is 5 feet below the surface to be fully charged to plant.

“Most of the state is at or above field capacity,” Paul said.

Across Illinois, moisture in the deep soil varies greatly and some areas have as much as 163 percent soil moisture, according to the soil moisture summary.

In previous years, the moisture in spring has not been as excessive.

“The last three to four years, there has been nice springs,” Paul said. “Farmers could get work done earlier than this year.”

The deep soil moisture, however, is in better shape than in previous years.

“There’s more moisture this year,” Paul said.

Despite the abundance of water, Paul could not say whether or not it would lead to higher yields.

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