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Knee High By The 4th of July? Not Exactly.

Central Illinois isn’t exactly seeing knee-high corn by the 4th of July this year.

Peoria County Farm Bureau Manager Patrick Kirchhoffer said the corn crop is “all over the place” this year due to delays caused by wet weather.

“We’ve got corn that’s chest-high in the Peoria area, and we’ve got corn that’s ankle-high. So it’s going to be a very long harvest season come this fall," he said. 

Kirchhoffer says this is the first year he can remember where farmers were planting over three months: April, May and June. Usually, the planting process takes just two weeks.

The USDA reports nearly 90 percent of corn has emerged from the ground, but the quality of this year’s crop varies highly, with only 39 percent rated fair and 36 percent rated good.

Tim is the News Director at WCBU Peoria Public Radio.