Most of our area has finally received some rainfall over the last week, but it has been scattered and highly variable. I have had reports of a few tenths to a few inches across the county. Much of the area has gotten about 3/4 to 1″, however, there is a band through the central part of the county that has only gotten a few tenths at best and even that was scattered across multiple days. I have a corn demonstration plot planted 5/3 that after 2 weeks barely emerged and soybeans planted that same time again with very spotty emergence. Wide spread rain is greatly needed. For those that have caught rain, crops responded almost overnight in growth. I have seen some of the largest corn fields at V3-4. PRE herbicide activation has been a concern with limited rainfall. Wheat continues to be quite happy with continued modest temperatures overall in the 70s and 80s and no excessive precipitation. We will get a better view of the wheat crop across the region next Tuesday at the Illinois Wheat Association Plot Tour, where farmer groups will canvas many of our wheat producing counties across the state, assessing crop quality and yield estimates They will wrap up at the Belleville Research Center late afternoon to view plots and report crop observations.