With my area still listed as being in “Moderate Drought”, crops are still looking good. Most soybean fields are in the “full pod” or R4 stage. I surveyed 50 consecutive soybean fields on my drive and 13 (26%) of those fields had weed escapes present across the field and volunteer corn was not considered a weed escape. This is another effect of this year’s dry spring weather on the effectiveness of residual and post-emergent herbicides. Most corn fields are in the late “milk” or R3 stage or beginning “dough” or R4 stage. There is some tipback on the corn ears present. Very little leaf disease is showing up in area crop fields, which is common in a drought.

It was a good sign to see that the corn canopy was collecting as much sunlight as possible with little sunlight hitting the ground. We can’t complain, but would love more rain for corn grainfill. The insecticide application eliminated Japanese beetles and most disease. If you visit field edges where fungicide coverage was a scarce, you will find tar spot on lower leaf and gray leaf spot moving up the plant. Soybeans are hanging in there with no more insect pressure thanks to a recent insecticide application. Septoria brown spot is in the lower canopy.

Crop is moving along. The high temperature next week are going to be tough with no moisture in the forecast. Corn stalks have moved the potassium from the lower nodes towards the ears, weakening stalks.

This week, I visited fields in central Champaign County. With much of the recently forecasted rain missing the area, soils are starting to dry up again. Digging down in a few field, there is still some moisture present a few inches below the surface, but that too is starting to dry. Plants do not looked stress at this point in time, but that could change quickly with a warm week ahead of us an minimal chances for rain in the current forecast. The vast majority of corn fields I visited had finished pollination, and were generally at blister (R2) or milk (R3) stages. Soybeans were generally at beginning pod (R3) to full pod (R4). Weed control was variable, with most pressure coming from waterhemp, and a few morning glories here and there. From the road, many soybean fields still look rather clean, but waterhemp pushing through the canopy is also starting to become a more common sight in the area.

Nice weather for corn pollination. Still need consistent rain showers of .75-1.5” per week to maintain yield potential. Soybeans are R2-R3.
Insect pressure is moderate.