Rain continued to wreak havoc on Illinois growers racing to plant the last of their soybeans, or replant waterlogged areas, as well as those itching to harvest winter wheat.

Steve Stallman, former president of the Illinois Wheat Growers Assoc., said his Randolph County ground has been saturated with about 15 inches of rain in the past three weeks. Despite attempts to get all of his beans in the ground, along with a few stuck pieces of equipment trying to harvest wheat, he remained going into last weekend with about 400 of his planned 600 acres of beans unplanted.

"It’s very disheartening. There are days this is depressing, no doubt about it," he said. "They’re talking about the weather pattern staying the same for another seven to 10 days," with additional chances of more rain.

He remained hopeful: "Farmers are generally eternal optimists, and you have to experience bad times once in a while to appreciate the good."

State Climatologist Jim Angel said this was the wettest June on record in Illinois, with a statewide average of about 9.53 inches of rain. The month was just shy of taking over the top spot as the wettest month of all time in the state – that distinction belongs to September 1926, with an average of 9.62 inches.

For the week ending June 27, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) weekly crop progress report, Illinois averaged nearly 2 inches of rain, nearly 1 inch above normal. It pushed topsoil moisture to surplus for 63 percent of the state; subsoil moisture was rated at 56 percent surplus.

The additional moisture already is impacting what was an excellent start for corn this year, with conditions declining to a combined good/excellent ranking of 62 percent, a drop of more than 15 percentage points from the week prior.

Soybean planting barely hit 93 percent, behind the five-year average by 5 percent. Blooming beans were pegged at just 3 percent, also 5 percentage points behind the five-year average.

The condition of the winter wheat crop in the state also plunged to a ranking of just 37 percent good or excellent.