We have been dry again this week, having missed any potential rain chances that were predicted. Our temperatures have also warmed up with most days at 90 degrees or above for highs. This has really put the stress to crops especially in the afternoon. Overall, crops look fairly good considering the dry, but they are growing fairly slow. Some early planted corn in the river bottom is starting to tassel. Wheat harvest is wrapping up and all reports I have heard have had very good yields and quality. Double crop soybeans are emerging fairly well, but they along with everything else, will really be hurting if we continue to stay hot and dry.

Much-anticipated rainfall fell across much of central Illinois on Thursday, June 29, accompanied by high winds and hail in some places. More rain is forecast in coming days, and we hope this means an end to the drought of 2023. It would be better if the rain came more slowly without hail, but we won’t complain. Two inches or so of rain over the next two weeks should be enough to get corn through pollination in most fields, and to get soybean growth and yield potential back on track.
The fact that corn has stayed relatively short and plants are not as brittle as they would have been with more soil moisture should help the crop withstand windstorms. Short corn can have high yield potential, as long as canopy cover is complete by pollination, and leaves remain healthy. Lower leaves that have lost color may not come back, but nutrient uptake and color of larger leaves should get back to normal. We can expect soybean leaf area to develop rapidly, and having the plants shorter than normal with less internal shading may help pod development and retention as plants continue to flower over the coming weeks.
Rainfall should bring a quick reversal of the recent decline in crop condition ratings of both corn and soybean. Answering the question about whether yield potential has been irreversibly lowered by stress will get easier over the next few weeks as plants resume growth and canopy development. We do expect yield potential to recover well, if perhaps not fully in those fields most affected by drought up to now. That will be helped along by normal rainfall, temperatures, and sunlight in July.

The area received some much-needed rain. The ISWS weather stations in Bondville and Champaign recorded 1.12″ and 0.85″, respectively. On my drive back from a field day in Christian County (after riding out the storm in Pana) the storm damage appeared to be isolated largely to toppled trees and fallen limbs. While there was generally an eastward lean to most of the corn fields, I did not see any greensnap or large areas of flattened corn, at least on the field margins. The images below, taken between Villa Grove and Philo in Champaign County, are from a corn field with the most severe wind damage I found. Some of the corn is on the ground, but most plants looked to still be well-rooted and will likely stand back up over the next several days, albeit a bit “goose-necked”. Soybean fields looked unharmed and and still generally in the R2 phase. But they will likely put on quite a bit of growth and start setting some pods in the next couple weeks with more adequate moisture now available.

Some fortunate NE farms received up to an inch of rain this past week. The rainfall helped our soy crop initiate new trifoliates, improving field aesthetics by hiding leaves present when post-herbicides were applied, giving some fields a “dinged” appearance. While recent rainfall was welcomed, signs of a very dry early vegetative season, and drought conditions, persist. Corn and soy are smaller than normally expected as we near July in our region. The competition for early season soil moisture is evident in corn fields having trees on their perimeter. Wheat harvest has yet to start in northern Illinois.

Despite the drier conditions, the soybean crop is progressing and reaching reproductive stages in this area of the state. In my last report, I visited a field with known root-knot nematode pressure, so this week, I decided to check a location with a history of elevated SCN populations. That field had numerous fully developed SCN females (cysts) and foliar symptoms. We may see more SCN foliar this season compared to other years due to the widespread drought.

I will leave some SCN scouting recommendations below. Please visit The SCN Coalition (TheSCNCoalition.com) for detailed SCN sampling recommendations and management insights.
– Visit areas with a history of SCN pressure.
– Look for potential field symptoms (patches with yellow plants and reduced growth – Figure 1).
– Dig (don’t pull) some plants using a shovel (see video 3). Pulling plants may leave some of the females in the soil, especially with the drier-than-normal conditions.
– Inspect the roots and look for adult females. They are small but can be observed with the naked eye (Figure 2).
– Females will look from white/light yellow to brown, depending on their developmental stage and age.

We received .3 inch of rain over the weekend – it was a welcomed rain but not nearly enough to make a dent in the drought.

On a trip to Monmouth this past week I saw the beginning of some likely spider mite infestations; if the drought continues, these become increasingly likely in soybean. This is a great reason to hold off on broad spectrum insecticide applications, which don’t touch the mites but eliminate their natural enemies. (Also, a good reason not to mow your grassways if you don’t have to).

The dryness ensures. Class A’s holding on but class B’s are struggling. The silver side of leaves in soybeans can now be seen after mid-day. A sign of very dry conditions.

This afternoon, I took a drive through western Vermillion County. Like much of the state, still, conditions are very dry. There was large variability in growth stage between fields. Corn generally fell in the V6-V10 range, although some of the later planted fields are not quite there and appear to have significantly slowed growth. In general, the larger corn looked healthier with less water stress, indicating there is some plant available moisture at the deeper soil levels accessible to roots of these larger plants, but perhaps not by the corn closer to V6. Soybean fields also showed a good deal of variation in terms of overall growth (open trifoliates, nodes, branches, etc.), although most fields I stopped an walked into were showing at least some flowers, with several at R2. Although there was variation in the overall appearance of health in the soybean fields surveyed, there were flipped leaves and signs of water stress in all of them. I did come across one wheat field that looked to have good head size and minimal disease. Harvest for that field is likely just around the corner.