Cold and damp conditions continue across much of the area. Many operations are sitting around 25% planted or less heading into the weekend. What corn is in the ground is beginning to emerge. Most beans planted are still sitting un-emerged. Crop health will be monitored closely in the coming days, as a lot of the area had frost Thursday morning.

We are wet now due to recent storms, but conditions had been pretty dry and are just now getting back closer to normal soil moisture levels and water tables.

Early to mid-April saw a lot of fieldwork, and the earliest corn is already ankle-high. Overall, still less than 25% of the crop is in the ground, but that is still a lot more progress than we saw a year ago. Now the forecast looks like we are going to be wet for the next couple of weeks, but at least most of the early planted crop has emerged despite the cold soils.

The wheat is done flowering and looking good after the dry winter and spring.

Planters were rolling over the weekend in parts of Champaign County, but rain from Monday into Tuesday has kept everyone out of the field since. Most fields I passed during my survey of the northern half of the county had been planted, but maybe only 10% to 15% had crop emergence. Cooler weather and relatively wet soils over the past couple of weeks have made the crop slow to emerge in many fields, with some taking more than two weeks after planting. Most soybeans are just starting to get out of the ground, while a few corn fields I saw were a bit further along, near the V2 stage. The one wheat field I found was still in the stem elongation phase, with the flag leaf visible on some of the more advanced plants.

I’m looking forward to another growing season and crop reporting in Northeast Illinois. April and May precipitation has slowed planting progress compared with other regions of Illinois. I’m estimating almost as much seed is still in the bag as is in the ground. On suitable days for planting, reports received suggest local farmers actively planted both soybeans and corn. The practice of planting soybeans ahead of corn acres has been adopted by many. Whether corn or soybeans, I was impressed by the acreage planted in a limited time frame. Despite planting date, low accumulations of GDDs have slowed crop emergence.

With limited emerged crops, we will highlight insect pests found in alfalfa. While sweeping alfalfa, we netted alfalfa weevil larvae, aphids and bean leaf beetles. We will continue to monitor leaf feeding in the alfalfa crop to determine whether a management threshold is reached.

In my three-county area, we are more than two-thirds planted, but that varies from area to area depending on rainfall amounts and field drainage. All plants are showing leaf damage from one or a combination of high winds, blowing soil and severe storms. This leaf damage can be seen in the photos.

With the high winds, we have experienced dust storms in select locations across the three counties.

Fieldwork and planting have been ongoing once fields dried enough following the significant rainfall events experienced in the area in mid-April. Although two weeks ago we experienced a number of uncharacteristically warm days, the weather this week continues to vary, as some days have been relatively warm but many nights have been relatively cool, with some even falling below freezing. Those who have recently planted may see slower emergence due to the consistently colder nighttime temperatures. However, the next week should bring temperate weather to facilitate further planting progress and good conditions for crop emergence across the area.