Region Updates

Region 5 | July 13, 2023 | Champaign

Talon Becker
tbecker2@illinois.edu

Caption: Soybeans on 15” rows at late R2 and early R3 – Champaign County, July 13, 2023
Caption: Low to moderate waterhemp pressure in R1 corn – Champaign County, July 7, 2023
SYNOPSIS

For this week’s report, I visited fields in northeast Champaign County. Overall, crops look to be recovering well from the early drought stress. Soil moisture was close to optimal in the fields I visited. And with some moderate rain in the forecast, soil moisture is likely to remain adequate through the next couple of weeks. The majority of corn fields are in full pollination, while there were a few I spotted that are just starting to show tassels and a few others that were nearing the end of pollen shed. Soybeans have closed their canopy on most fields and are at R2-R3. I came across one small wheat field that was harvested, but there were no signs yet of an attempt at planting a double-crop soybean in that field. Weed pressure, largely waterhemp, was present in all the corn fields I visited, but was generally low to moderate. Soybean fields showed a variety of conditions; most appeared relatively clean while there were a few that had some serious issues with waterhemp and volunteer corn.

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING BEST DESCRIBES CURRENT CONDITIONS IN THIS COUNTY?
Mildly Wet (soil is wetter than normal, local vegetation is healthy)
IF CONDITIONS ARE ON THE DRY END, WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING US DROUGHT MONITOR CATEGORIES BEST FIT CURRENT CONDITIONS
Near Normal (Dnada)