Rainfall in late June and early July brought relief from very dry conditions, but soils dried out again before August 5-9 rains over most of Illinois recharged soil moisture enough to restore crop prospects for the 2023 season. The August 15 U.S. drought monitor map showed 28% of Illinois to have no drought, 57% to be abnormally dry, and 14% to be in moderate drought. At this point in the season, there’s little concern about abnormal dryness,…
Nearly all of Illinois received rainfall in the late June and early July, with amounts of 2 to 5 inches across a large part of the state (Figure 1). There is more variability than the map shows – for example, only 1.67 inches fell at Willard Airport near Champaign, not the 2.5-3” indicated on the map. But there is no doubt that the rain boosted crop prospects for 2023, and reversed the month-long decline in crop condition.…
The first two months of the 2023 growing season have been much like the first two months of the 2022 growing season, with a few key differences. The 2023 crop was planted earlier and into somewhat drier soils – some producers actually waited to plant during part of the second half of April until the weather warmed up. By May 7, 73% of the corn and 66% of the soybean had been planted, compared to the 14% for corn and 10% for soybean from May 7,…
March was a wet month across much of Illinois. Statewide precipitation averaged 4.48 inches, 1.27 inches above normal. The wet trend continued throughout the first week of April, especially in northern Illinois: more than 1.5 inches of rain fell in some places. NASS reported 1.7 and 2.5 days suitable for fieldwork for the weeks ending April 2 and April 9, respectively.
March temperature averaged 40.5 degrees compared to the 30-yr average of 41.1 degrees, but with wild swings.…
Every crop year brings its own set of challenges during the growing season. The story of the 2022 growing season in Illinois was one of dry weather and crop stress at times and in some places, but good to great yields anyway. How did this happen?
Growing season weather and crop conditions
April was not a wet month, but it was wet enough and cool enough to delay planting; by May 1, only 7 percent of the corn and 5% of the soybean crops were planted.…
Biological seed treatment is a growing market in the U.S., with several new products being available to growers every year. These products are marketed to increase grain yield and return on investment by the action of a single or a mix of plant-beneficial microbes (e.g., arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, N-fixing bacteria, and P-solubilizing microbes). Given high commodity prices, growers are interested in understanding the benefits of applying biological products to the seed. In 2022, we evaluated nine commonly marketed biological seed treatment products at two locations in Illinois.…
As the 2022 season winds down, farmers are thinking about their fertility program for the 2023 growing season. While fertilizer prices have declined since spring, fertilizer prices remain high, and fertilizer costs are significantly higher than a year ago (farmdoc daily, 12:148). With continued high fertilizer prices, making every pound of fertilizer count is essential. The most important thing to be as efficient as possible is reviewing a few principles related to soil fertility.…
I am pleased to introduce myself as the new Assistant Professor & Field Crops Extension Agronomist with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I’m a U of I alum and am thrilled to be back in Illinois to serve U of I students and agricultural stakeholders through teaching, research, and extension.
I was born and raised in Midwestern Brazil, in the state of Mato Grosso (the top soybean producer in Brazil, with ~27.4 million acres planted in 2021/22).…