West-Central/ Central Illinois Report 5/15/25

The week in Central/ West Central Illinois again acted as a snapshot for the diverse story in Illinois as a whole.

Northern and eastern portions started the week off “nearly complete.” In some cases corn and beans in the Carthage, Quincy, Pittsfield, and Jacksonville area stood at nearly 90% planted.

East of Springfield, moving toward Decatur and Taylorville, corn began the week at better than 80% planted with beans anywhere from 60-75% planted.

The creep toward Route 16 saw a dramatically different story with a line from Shelbyville running up to Carlinville struggling to best 25% planted.

Spotty showers caused occasional delays but most of the area saw weather suited to make planting progress if soil conditions allowed.

Major points of concern for the week circled around crusted soils that cut into final stands and weed pressure breaking through pre-emerge chemistry.

The wheat crop began to head out in the area. The earliest beans passed second trifoliate, and some early corn fields began to near V5.

Scouting was done in Stephenson County. Overall the field conditions are very dry with May only bringing 1.1″ across the area so far. Temperatures have been in the upper 70s and low 80s this week with lows in the upper 40s and 50s. There are some potential rain events coming in the next week to add some moisture back into the soil. A large majority of fields have been planted and pre-emerge posts are being applied.

Corn has emerged in a majority of fields. Plants are healthy with good vigor from abundant sunshine. Growth stages are between emergence and V2 pushing V3. Despite the dry weather the residual soil moisture has produced uniform emergence.

Soybeans are beginning to emerge, by the end of the weekend most fields should emerge, but as of Wednesday only a small amount of fields had beans breaking through. Those beans were at the VE emergence or VC unifoliate unfolding growth stages. Soil top soil were dry but no crusting due to the lack of rain and the beans were having no issue breaking through the surface.

Wheat is at Feekes 10 or boot growth stage. The head is fully developed and about 2/3 the way up the leaf sheath. Head emergence is just around the corner with the warm weather. Fungicide sprays will be applied in short order as well once heads emerge. Plants looked healthy with low disease within the wheat stand.

Overall a great week for heat units and growth on the major cash crops in NW illinois and across all of northern IL. The rain potential in the next week will go a long way after a relatively dry spring and a dry winter for crop growth.

We remain dry in Northern Illinois, with our last rain 3/4 inches on May 1st. There have been some rotary hoes running the last couple days from end of April planting starting to emerge.

A busy planting week for most in NE Illinois. Above average temperatures this week provided several days accumulating at least 17 GDU’s (base 50) per day. The favorable conditions for germination and seedling growth also extended to several problematic weeds including Waterhemp and Marestail. Early recognition of these and other weed species is important because post management strategies become challenging as the weeds reach critical sizes. Several areas missed recent precipitation events and we have received reports of disappointing soy stands in earlier planted fields. Growers are encouraged to evaluate crop emergence to determine if replant is a viable option.

Favorable weather conditions this past week have allowed many producers to either finish planting or get close to finishing. Several parts of Logan, Menard, and Sangamon counties received a couple of tenths of an inch of rain, adding enough moisture to the soil. Many of the earlier-planted corn fields are in the V1-V2 stage, with the more recently planted fields in the VE stage. The same can be said with soybean fields; earlier-planted fields are in the VC-V1 stage, and later-planted fields are in the VE stage. Many producers have also started cutting alfalfa and other forages, with more having their first cutting on the ground by this weekend into next week.

Planting is near complete with a few cover crop fields being finished after termination. Dry conditions are here in Western Illinois and we will need a rain soon or crops will start showing stress due to slower growth with young roots not being able to find available moisture. Overall corn and soybean emergence is around 70%. Soybean emergence in heavy crop residues need to be checked for emergence issues.