Area farmers and the Ford-Iroquois Farm Bureau are celebrating National Agriculture Week. The spring planting season is drawing near. And as farmers prep their equipment, motorists are reminded that slow-moving farm equipment will soon be traveling along area roads.

Last year farmers in Ford and Iroquois counties bounced back from the 2012 drought by producing 86.7 million bushels of corn. They also raised 17.9 million bushels of soybeans. And the corn grown during 2013 represented an 81-percent increase over the drought-stricken crop in 2012.

Ninety-four percent of the farms in Illinois are family-owned, and passed from generation to generation. In Ford and Iroquois Counties, the Farm Bureau reports over 357 farms have been recognized as Centennial or Sesquicentennial Farms – meaning they have been owned by the same family for more than 100 or 150 years.