During my survey on Tuesday of this week (5/13), I made it circuit around the eastern half of McLean County. When I started my survey in the southeast corner of the county, soil moisture in fields was near normal to slightly dry on some of the hilltops. However, pop-up showers were prevalent that afternoon, and by the time I reached the northern part of the county, there was water standing in headlands, low areas in fields, and roadside ditches. So, although I’ve indicated the soil moisture conditions were “slightly wet” for this report, the truth is that is a county average with quite a bit of variability across the county at the time of my survey.

Before those pop-up showers hit, there were planters rolling in the fields. At least half of the fields I observed in my survey had emerged crop, and the majority of the remainder had been planted with maybe only 10-15% unplanted. Most emerged corn is somewhere in the V1-V2 range, and most soybeans were still at VC with the first trifoliates just starting to unfold. Weed control still looked good in most fields; earlier planted fields are starting to show some sparse weed emergence.