Unfortunately, very little to report this week, but I believe most of the surrounding areas of Champaign County are in the same situation. The good news is, we have warmer temperatures, so even as it rains, it will dry the top soil out quicker than when it was cooler. Stay patient with the soil. If you can, allow it to dry to ideal conditions for planting to avoid sidewall compaction when you plant or overall compaction.

Field work is on hold due to 5.5” of rain in the last week. Tomorrow has a chance of rain as do several days next week.
Saw some soybeans popping up in rows near Morton today.

Crop that is planted and up looks to be variable based on moisture levels in the fields. Higher ground looks good and uniform. Low areas may be drown out or still yet to emerge.

Both corn and soybeans that were planted April 8th and 9th have emerged. Planting and other field activities have halted due to several inches of previous rain over the weekend. We continue to catch cutworm moths.

It’s raining again. Will take some heat and wind to dry out. Tillage and spraying in the area this week. Some fields planted. South of Bloomington has soybeans up. Farther north they’ve missed the rains and are further along. Wheat looks good in the area.

Pockets of activity SW & NW of Champaign, as well as scattered in other areas. We missed the rain on 4/19 and that pushed growers to head to the field. Mainly soybean planting, but there has been some corn planted as well. Cooler Temps and a cold rain, will take its toll on corn emergence. Soybeans that were up, seemed to survive the light frost we had on 4/25. A warm up is on the way, and once the rain had moved out, this looks like a great opportunity to get rolling.

There is a lot of fieldwork going on including planting. It is very, important to be on the lookout and cautious when driving because of the high number of farm equipment moving about the countryside. We are hoping to miss the rain today (if possible) to have a wider planting window, which has not been possible the last several weeks due to rain. I have been finding 3 to 7 black cutworm moths as well as 1 armyworm moth in traps this past week.

Harvest continues to roll along. Some are done and others are about half done. Wheat planting is in full force. Some issues getting N containing P fertilizers like DAP since the river is so low has cause concern. Lots of lime and fall fertilizer going down but little fall tillage yet.

Yield reports are still variable across the region. That being said we are seeing what a timely rain does to yields in some areas. Even thought the amounts of rain were not “high”, a timely rain of a few tenths seems to be making quite a bit of difference in yields. 100-150 bu yield swings where those few tenths fell on corn and 20 bu on beans is not uncommon to hear.

To paint with a broad brush, most yield reports are in the 160-180 range on corn and the 45-60 range on beans. Most everyone reports a fields or fields higher and lower than these numbers.

However, I have got numerous reports of corn in the 60-80 bu range and beans in the 25-40 bu range as well.

I’ve seen one field of corn in Tazwell County with the end rows taken off. Moisture test in early planted corn in McLean County at 20%. Harvest is slow between Springfield and Jacksonville. Farmers are trying to be patient and allow field drying but it is slow. Many harvesting just enough to stay with drying capacity. Yields 10-30% off normal. Older farmers who have farmed through 1988 are amazed at yields on 10” of rain that mostly came in 2 storms. Input prices for 2024 look better. 2023 will be the first break even year for some younger farmers.

#Harvest23 is under way! As suspected the corn yields are coming in 5-7% less than 2022 and on par with elevator tour estimates. 225-230 at 22-26%. Soybeans have been sparse so far with only 2 known fields harvested with and average of 64.
Plant health in corn continues to fade rapidly. A good shower of rain would help even up a large number of soybean acres to cut next week.