Harvest has begun in northern Champaign County, albeit on very limited acreage, primarily seed corn fields at this point. Another week of dry weather along with high temps in the 90s have dried up any standing water that remained in fields in that part of the county and has moved the corn crop, in particular, much closer to harvest. Most corn fields I visited still have not quite hit full physiological maturity (R6), but with the milk line all but disappeared on most ears, they don’t have far to go. Ear size and grain fill was once again variable. Foliar diseases in corn are “helping” to turn fields from green to brown quickly at this time of year, and I’ve seen a bit more lodging in corn fields as the weeks progress. In fields surveyed with lodging issues, the main culprit appeared to be Diplodia stalk rot. But other stalk and crown rots could be contributing to this issue as well. I’ll reiterate my message from last week encouraging the use of recent drone or satellite imagery to asses lodging severity in fields to aid in harvest decision making. Soybeans are also progressing towards maturity, but many fields remain with plenty of green in the canopy, still somewhere between full seed (R6) and beginning maturity (R7) growth stages.