It’s been wet. There were a couple of breaks in the rain long enough for anhydrous and burndowns to be applied, even a little early tillage, but no planting activity as far as I’ve seen. The wheat looks decent considering the 15+ inches of rain that have fallen since April 1st. In the last week, the wheat has headed out and started to flower.

This is a good time to scout for seedling pests, particularly in fields that have been slow to emerge/develop – as we get into warmer weather over the next couple of weeks, plants can outgrow a lot of seedling insect problems. So far, I’ve only received a smattering of reports.

Early planted corn and soybean plants have emerged. Corn is in the 2-leaf stage, nearing the 3-leaf stage. Soybean plants are in the unifoliate stage with their first trifoliates developing. Surveyed 200 fields across my 3-county area, and approximately 75% of the fields are planted. Planting progress did vary widely from 30 to 100% complete due the spotty nature of this spring’s rains.
Ponding is evident in fields where the heavier May 3 rains fell. My Black Cutworm monitoring, according to the IL Natural History Survey, predicts that feeding damage may become evident around the Memorial Day weekend.

Everyone around here is hoping to not get any rain, so we can dry out to be able to plant again, maybe this weekend. There has been no planting or other fieldwork here since Mid-April. I attempted to take soybean populations and found a few drowned out spots that may need replanted. Some slower soybeans still trying to emerge in cool, wet conditions. Populations were running from 103,000 to 131,000.

Corn and soybean planting in northern LaSalle county both seem to be 60-70% completed with some producers having all their soybeans planted and are now focused on the corn. I’m expecting to see most producers in the area to wrap up planting most of the 2025 crop in the next 2 weeks- maybe less.

Planting is progressing in west central Illinois, though at a slower pace as most fields are already planted and only a few remain. Corn has begun to emerge, and soybean rows are becoming visible.