Until last night, many farmers were in the field over the past eight days applying ammonia or burndown treatments, while others were tilling and planting. It was a very good run, but limited rainfall raised concerns about delayed or uneven corn and soybean emergence. Over the past week, about 135 GDDs have accumulated, with most occurring in the past three days due to warm temperatures. Just under an inch of rain fell overnight, providing needed moisture to support emergence. Field conditions are now too wet for fieldwork for the next several days, and it is too early to evaluate plant stands.

Planting is in full swing in southern Illinois, with some areas to the east finished or close to finishing. Many areas could use rain, which would help get the crop up and going.

Weather is warmer and drier than normal, and I think we will start to see planters rolling a little early this season. In this report, I would like to focus attention on the carry-over effects of 2025 trials on 2026 cereal rye cover crops. The first image is the 0-N treatment from a 2025 MRTN trial. The second image is a 0-N treatment alongside a 200-N treatment in the same trial. In both images, the biomass on the 0-N control is significantly less than where we used commercial nitrogen. This begs two questions: how much nitrogen would be lost from near optimum N rates if we weren’t growing a cereal rye cover behind it? And just as importantly, if we are trying to build soil health, how important is commercial nitrogen to drive biomass production? The last image is a little harder to interpret, but it shows the residual strips of greater cereal rye biomass associated with a 2025 in-furrow nitrogen fixing bacteria treatment applied with only water. This begs another question: what is the long-term value/impact of biological treatments in the soil biome? As usual, agronomy comes with more questions than answers and a lot of ‘it depends’, but we are seeing some clues to help us figure out what’s happening.

“Work around limited rain delays” best describes grower activity in the west-central Illinois area.

Rainfall over the Easter weekend varied from a tenth to 3 inches across the region. By midweek, many of our drier areas were able to initiate fieldwork and rack up some impressive planting progress.

The period during and immediately following that rainfall resulted in lower temperatures, but conditions warmed by midweek, with the week ahead also looking warm.

Where fieldwork was delayed past midweek, efforts appeared largely focused on the spring battle to eliminate purple and green from the field. Disks, field cultivators and sprayers dotted the landscape.

Growers in drier regions made significant progress on soybean and corn planting over the past week, though activity was not limited to this period alone. Late March soybean planting appears to have increased in 2026, resulting in my west-central Illinois colleague, Andrew Malcomson, Beck’s agronomist, observing emerged, early-planted soybeans late in the week. An increase in stale seedbed preparation also appears to be at play, making it difficult to initially detect planted fields during windshield surveys.

The evening of April 9 brought additional rainfall that initially appeared poised to curtail most fieldwork heading into the weekend. However, growers were soon back at it, and an initial forecast for additional rainfall just ahead of Tax Day increasingly appears less likely to materialize.

Daytime temperatures are fluctuating from the 40s to the 80s. With 3-5 inches of rain from last week and 0.4-1 inch this week, soil conditions have been moist. Due to cooler nights, soil temperatures are not optimal for planting conditions. While days become warmer and soil gets up to optimal conditions, we have laid out and accomplished proper protocols for the Sulfur 2.0 trial and HumiK trials.

With the Sulfur 2.0 trial, in one field we are comparing ATS vs. AMS vs. untreated. In another field, we are comparing AMS vs. 32%. With these comparisons, the goal is to find what better fits the sulfur. In another field, we set up our HumiK trial, which allows organic matter to build in the soil.

The field we are trialing has a very sandy-like texture, which lacks organic matter, giving us the opportunity to experiment on whether this product will benefit this field and how to build it up to get the most yield possible.

Cover crop growth in Iroquois County is quickly progressing with the recent rainfall and warming weather.