SHELBYVILLE — The Illinois Farm Bureau is cautioning farmers may not be able to get back on rural roads with an ATV until late this summer or fall.
Drafting errors in legislation prevents ATVs from even crossing county and township roads they’d been allowed on since 2007, said Kevin Rund, the Farm Bureau’s senior director of local government.
The new legislation had been aimed at allowing golf carts onto those roads in some circumstances, Rund said Monday during the Shelby County Ag Day.
Other legislation that was intended to go into effect would have allowed Gator type vehicles along with ATVs onto the rural roads.
The Farm Bureau is working with lawmakers to fix the errors and allow ATVs back onto the roads, where they’ve been banned since Jan. 1, Rund said.
“Hopefully, we get that all right,” Rund said. “There could be some strings attached.”
Use of ATVs to check on crops and livestock is one of the changes for farmers to be aware of as the next growing season approaches with last year’s harvest a not-so-distant memory.
Some corn fields are still standing, especially to the north, said Jim Angel, Illinois Water Survey State Climatologist.
Farmers will be coming off of two unusually wet years as they head into 2010, Angel said. They had to contend with the coolest July on record and one of the wettest Octobers, among other weather-related issues in 2009, Angel said.
“We never could get the degree-days going once we got the crops planted, so we couldn’t get caught up,” Angel said.
“It just wouldn’t let up. It was a very unusual growing season.”
Long-term forecasts aren’t yet showing any major changes for this year in Illinois, although Angel said no forecasts at this time last year picked up that it was going to be a record wet year.
Angel is concerned wet conditions are going to continue at least into the early part of the spring when farmers want to start heading back into the fields.
“We’re looking at a lot of water throughout Illinois,” Angel said.
“The early risk is we’re going to start off in such wet conditions.”
Cooler summer temperatures usually follow a wet spring, Angel said. At this point, Angel is fairly certain farmers won’t be contending with dry conditions.
“I don’t think we’re going to have another record breaking wet year,” Angel said. “I would be really surprised if we got in trouble with a drought.”
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