Crop Production

Considerations as the 2022 Corn Crop Approaches Maturity

  • September 1, 2022

The 2022 Illinois corn crop was planted about two weeks later than normal, but slightly above-normal temperatures this summer have helped move crop development along (Figure 1); the crop is only a few days behind normal as it reaches late grainfilling stages and maturity. With the forecast for warm weather to continue into September, we can expect the majority of the crop to reach maturity by mid-September.
One helpful tool to help track development and maturity in corn is the corn GDD tool located at https://mygeohub.org/groups/u2u/purdue_gdd.…

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EVENT: 2022 Ag Field Day at Monmouth Research Farm

  • June 30, 2022


The Northwest Illinois Agriculture Research and Demonstration Center outside of Monmouth, Illinois will be holding an Ag Field Day on July 27 this year. The program will run from 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Presenters for the field day are Nick Seiter, Emerson Nafziger, Trent Ford, Phillip Alberti, and Greg Steckel. Topics will include corn rootworm, nitrogen management, climate trends, hemp, and corn/soybean planting dates. The program is free to attend, and water/light refreshments will be provided.…

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Seeing Crops Through a Hot, Dry June

  • June 17, 2022

After a slow start, corn and soybean planting in Illinois proceeded at a normal pace in 2022. Rainfall in May was at 85 percent of normal statewide. While we remember the very warm days from May 10-15 and a few days later in the month, the statewide May temperature was only about 2 degrees warmer than normal.
The weather during the first half of June continued the trend from May, with temperatures averaging about 2 degrees above normal,…

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Illinois Crops Update 5/27/2022

  • May 27, 2022

Each week, I put out a request to crops educators and specialists from the University of Illinois to compile an update to share with the entire state. We hope you find this information useful. If you have any questions or suggestions about the format or any feedback in general about these updates, please email me (harbach2@illinois.edu).
Nick Seiter, field crops entomology Extension specialist, University of Illinois
There have been relatively few early-season insect problems reported so far.…

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Illinois Crops Update 5/20/2022

  • May 20, 2022

Each week, I put out a request to crops educators and specialists from the University of Illinois to compile an update to share with the entire state. We hope you find this information useful. If you have any questions or suggestions about the format or any feedback in general about these updates, please email me (harbach2@illinois.edu).
 
Nick Seiter, field crops entomology Extension specialist, University of Illinois
I have received few reports of insect damage to date,…

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Illinois Crops Update 5/13/2022

  • May 13, 2022

Welcome to the first weekly crops update from Illinois Extension. Each week, I put out a request to crops educators and specialists from University of Illinois to compile an update to share with the entire state. We hope you find this information useful, and if you have any questions or suggestions about the format, please email me (harbach2@illinois.edu).
Emerson Nafziger, agronomy specialist and professor emeritus Dept. of Crop Sciences
While we welcome the warm weather that has dried fields and enabled a lot of planting this week,…

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On the Watch for Soil Crusting

  • May 6, 2022

Corn and soybean planting progress has been slow so far in Illinois, with 7 percent of the corn crop and 5 percent of the soybean crop planted by May 1. These numbers should increase modestly by May 8, but this will not be an early-planting year. With warm temperatures returning next week, planting progress should accelerate.
Soil temperatures at the 2-inch depth over the last ten days ranged from around 60 in southern Illinois to 55 in central Illinois to 50 in northern Illinois.…

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Spring Nitrogen Management

  • March 28, 2022

High fertilizer nitrogen prices are providing an incentive to manage N this spring with as much efficiency as possible. We’ll consider here some ways to work towards that.
Nitrogen rate: Higher corn prices are helping to counter the effect of higher N prices on N rate: if N and corn sale prices hold at current levels, MRTN rates for corn following soybean are 154 lb/acre in northern IL, 167 in central IL, and 185 in southern Illinois.…

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Is That Enough Nitrogen?

  • March 17, 2022

While N fertilizer prices remain high, at around $0.90 per lb of N as anhydrous ammonia and in the vicinity of $1.00 per lb of N as UAN or urea, recent increases in the price of corn have produced moderately higher MRTN N rates from the N rate calculator. As an example, with N at $1.00 per lb and corn at $7.00 per bushel, the MRTN rate for corn following soybean in central Illinois is 167 lb N per acre,…

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Wet Soils and Corn

  • July 15, 2021

The 2021 cropping season in Illinois (and the Corn Belt) continues to be a story of haves, have-nots, and have-way-too-much with regard to rainfall. In the first three weeks of June, nearly all of Illinois had below-normal rainfall, and concerns about dryness increased. That ended abruptly: in the three weeks from June 25 through July 14, rainfall totals ranged from below normal in the northwestern counties to 25 to 75% above normal in southern Illinois to 100 to more than 200% above normal in central Illinois,…

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