It’s been a rough spring…cold weather, flooding, and tornados have impacted farmers in Illinois and beyond. The nation’s eyes are on middle-America for all these reasons. We hope that those who have been impacted by these storms can recover, as we keep everyone in our thoughts.

Despite the rough spring, Illinois farmers, in most areas of the state, have persevered, as always, and pushed through the difficulty to get the 2011 crop in the ground. This year’s planting progress in Illinois is now at 90 percent complete in corn, an impressive gain from just a couple weeks ago. Amazingly, we are actually ahead of the five-year corn planting progress at this time.

As for the ethanol price advantage at the pump, it’s narrowed against wholesale gasoline in the last week. Currently, the Chicago OPIS has wholesale ethanol prices at 39 cents per gallon less expensive than whole gasoline prices.

If you’d like to help the victims of the Joplin, Missouri, tornado, the American Red Cross is taking donations. Be sure to indicate “Joplin tornado” on your cash/check donation.