skip to Main Content

Oct 31 | Weather Update and Market Review

  • November 1, 2025
  • Todd Gleason

The 2025 Farm Assets Conference is scheduled for Friday, December 12 at the AgriCenter in Bloomington, Illinois. The doors open at 7:30 a.m. central. The program starts at 8:00 a.m. Registration for 2025 is $80 per person through noon December 8 and $100 thereafter. Media and Extension personnel may register for free.
CLICK TO REGISTER and for complete Farm Assets Conference details
You may also want to register for the 2025 Illinois Farm Economic Summits.…

Read This Article

Oct 24 | Climate Review & Weather Forecast

  • October 24, 2025
  • Todd Gleason

The 2025 Farm Assets Conference is scheduled for Friday, December 12 at the AgriCenter in Bloomington, Illinois. The doors open at 7:30 a.m. central. The program starts at 8:00 a.m. Registration for 2025 is $80 per person through noon December 8 and $100 thereafter. Media and Extension personnel may register for free.
CLICK TO REGISTER and for complete Farm Assets Conference details
You may also want to register for the 2025 Illinois Farm Economic Summits.…

Read This Article

Help Shape the Future of Public Media

  • October 24, 2025
  • Todd Gleason


Many of you already know the great role public media plays in your local community. Maybe you’re a longtime listener or viewer, or perhaps you just know us from the farm radio programs we deliver to you each week via this email.
Did you know that WILL has been broadcasting agricultural programs for over 100 years? That’s a lot of history!
Now, as we look to the future, WILL is developing a strategic plan to guide our work moving forward.…

Read This Article

TODAY 2:30pm on WILL AM580 | Drought of 2025

  • October 20, 2025
  • Todd Gleason


According to the U-S Drought Monitor, Champaign, Coles, Douglas, Moultrie and Piatt Counties are experiencing extreme drought. The rest of Illinois is experiencing abnormally dry to severe drought conditions. This week, our Weather Realness podcast is diving into the definition and its effects on agriculture and trees.
Host Maddie Stover talked with Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford, including the deficit in rain that we’re currently facing.
LISTEN TODAY (Oct 20) at 2:30pm central on WILL AM580 or on demand here. …

Read This Article

Oct 17 | Weather Update and Market Review

  • October 18, 2025
  • Todd Gleason

The 2025 Farm Assets Conference is scheduled for Friday, December 12 at the Agri-Center in Bloomington, Illinois. The doors open at 7:30 a.m. central. The program starts at 8:00 a.m. Registration for 2025 is $80 per person through noon December 8 and $100 thereafter. Media and Extension personnel may register for free.
CLICK TO REGISTER and for complete Farm Assets Conference details.
You may also want to register for the 2025 Illinois Farm Economic Summits.…

Read This Article

Illinois Crop Update – September 26, 2025

  • September 26, 2025
  • Illinois Extension

Reagen Tibbs– Commercial Agriculture Educator
Logan County
Soil Condition: Moderately Dry (soil is dry, plants may be browning or stressed, water bodies are low)
Rains over the last week have been welcome but have not provided the much-needed relief from drought conditions. If anything, the rain has slowed the harvest progress for many across Logan County. While on the outside rows, some fields appear ready to harvest, there are still many green plants deep inside the fields.…

Read This Article

From Rare to Relevant: Calonectria ilicicola and Its Growing Impact on Soybean Production in Illinois

  • September 25, 2025
  • Esneider Bojaca, Diane Plewa, Boris Camiletti

Introduction
Red crown rot (RCR) of soybean is a disease caused by the fungal pathogen Calonectria ilicicola. This pathogen was first identified on peanuts in the United States in 1965 [1]. Since then, C. ilicicola has been found to cause disease in a wide variety of hosts across the world. It was first confirmed on soybeans in 1968 in Japan [2] and subsequently identified on soybeans in the United States in 1972 [3] in North Carolina.…

Read This Article

Sep 19 | Weather Update and Market Revie

  • September 19, 2025
  • Todd Gleason

We slipped back into summer this week. Average temperatures ranged from the mid-60s in northern Illinois to the mid-70s in southern Illinois, 4 to 8 degrees above normal. The lack of humidity and extremely dry conditions allowed daytime high temperatures to push well into the 90s this week. Some of the more impressive highs this week included 99 degrees in Alton and Decatur.
by Trent Ford, State Climatologist
ISWS PRI University of Illinois
This week was also very dry yet again across the state.…

Read This Article

Illinois Crop Update – September 19, 2025

  • September 19, 2025
  • Illinois Extension

Steve Brand– Commercial Agriculture Specialist
DeKalb County
Soil Condition: Near Normal
We have had a bit of a mini heat wave here in the middle of September as temperatures returned to near normal compared to the previous two weeks of cooler weather. The warmer temperatures are helping the corn and soybeans progress along through maturity as we are a bit behind the rest of the state harvest and maturity-wise. As the rest of the state is entering into some more substantial droughts,…

Read This Article

The 2025 soybean crop as we approach harvest

  • September 12, 2025
  • Giovani Preza Fontes, Emerson Nafziger

You can also read the article in Portuguese and Spanish
While August rainfall is the “soybean maker,” July rainfall is also important to the podsetting process that sets up yield potential. July rainfall was plentiful overall in Illinois, but varied from an inch or two less than normal in parts of southern Illinois to more than twice normal amounts in western and northwestern Illinois. In contrast, August rainfall was less than normal over all but the northern edge of the state,…

Read This Article
Back To Top