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.

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.

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.

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.

Harvest has started across most of Southern Illinois. Yields are highly variable.

Corn yield reports running from 130 to 240. High infield variability is also reported and its “normal” to hear of 175 bu yield swings based on soil type. Higher yields are being reported in isolated spots that got timely rain with lower yields also being in isolated spots of no rain. Most report so far that they are at or near their APH on yield. I suspect to see those number drop a bit as harvest moves into the mid May planting date fields. Moisture is running 22-34% out of the field and also in the same field!

Bean yields are again highly variable with yields in the mid 40s to 70 bushel. Again high infield variability is being reported with as much as 50 bu yield swings between soil types.

The soil is to dry and hard for any soil sampling at this point.

The corn and soybean crop in northeast Champaign County is continuing to progress towards maturity. Average temperatures have started to decline, but many fields of corn and soybean are either at, or more commonly, approaching physiological maturity. Some later season soybeans are still very green across their canopy, but those fields are generally at or very near R6 (full seed). Approximately 10% of soybean fields I saw in my tour through that portion of the county were in the later stages of R7 (beginning maturity), while most were at R6 (full seed) and early R7. A similar proportion, although probably a bit lower than 10%, of corn fields appeared to be at R6 (physiological maturity/black layer) based on field checks and a windshield survey.

Woodford County, IL is currently not on the drought monitor for the week. Most of the rest of Central IL is abnormally dry.
Combines are rolling about an hour south of here. Some fields gave up on life as opposed to maturing.