cropCENTRAL | Field Crop Production Resources

Illinois producers planted 650,000 acres of winter wheat in the fall of 2021 and harvested 560,000 acres in 2022, with an average yield of 79 bushels per acre. Boosted by high world wheat prices, high wheat and good doublecrop soybean yields, and dry fall weather, planted acreage for 2023 rose to 880,000 acres. That’s 45 percent higher than the average of the past ten years, and the highest planted wheat acreage in Illinois since 2008. Crop condition ratings on March 26 were good,…

As in past years, our Moth Trapping Network is set to begin April 1 with our spring migratory insects. We are currently looking for cooperators to monitor both black cutworm and true armyworm traps from April 1 – May 31.

Requirements for trapping:

• Set up traps provided.
• Check traps regularly. Ideally, we’d like traps to be checked every other day to help accurately identify significant moth flights, but checking on Monday,

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Helped more than hurt overall by periods of dry weather during the season, the 2023 Illinois corn averaged 214 bushels per acre, the highest yield on record. We’ll look at some results from N fertilizer trials in 2022 and consider how we manage N for the upcoming season.
N rate
Figure 1 below shows N responses for corn following soybean in nine N rate trials in central Illinois in 2022. These are drawn using actual data points (yields at each N rate averaged over reps),…

March 7, 2023  University of Illinois Extension hosted a farmer conference at the Beef House in Covington, Indiana. The All Day Ag Outlook has been held annually since 1991. This year’s event showcased U of I College of ACES farmdoc team members, WILLAg On Air market analysts, the Illinois FBFM, agricultural weather, and John Deere computer intelligence. We are hopeful you find the linked audio presentations from the day insightful. These files have been compiled into a single playlist which you may use to review or share the content.…

Link to Original farmdocDaily Article
The Risk Management Agency (RMA) has released 2023 projected prices for crop insurance. For Illinois and most Midwest states, projected prices are $5.91 per bushel for corn and $13.76 for soybeans. Those projected prices are some of the highest in history and will provide solid safety nets. Still, many operations will face losses before crop insurance guarantees make payments.
Listen to a March 2 interview with University of Illinois ag economist Gary Schnitkey and Nick Paulson about ARC/PLC and crop insurance decisions.…

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.…