cropCENTRAL | Field Crop Production Resources

Our hot summer continued this week, albeit with some well deserved breaks. Average temperatures this week ranged from the low 70s in northern Illinois to the low 80s in southern Illinois, between 2 and 5 degrees above normal. Most places saw a couple of days with highs in the upper 90s, and a few places broke the 100 degree mark, including Salem, Mount Vernon, and Cahokia Heights. The triple digit high in Salem was only the 6th on record for June there,…

Nicole Haverback  – Watershed Outreach Associate
Henry County
Soil Conditions: Near Normal
After a few needed storms this week, Henry county received around 2 inches of rain with hail and wind impacting some areas

Figure 1: Hail damage soybeans- Annawan

Figure 2: Hail damage corn – Annawan

Figure 3: Hail damage corn- Annawan
 
Emily Hansen – Commercial Agriculture Educator
LaSalle County
Soil Conditions: Mildly Dry (soil is drier than normal,…

Corn rootworm beetles will begin emerging throughout Illinois over the next couple of weeks (we noticed the first few western corn rootworm beetles of the year at our Urbana field site earlier this week). There are a number of things we can learn by keeping track of corn rootworm emergence, particularly in fields that have a history of rootworm problems:

• Control performance. Usually, our first indication that a local population is developing resistance to a Bt trait package is elevated numbers of beetles emerging from traited corn;

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As high temperatures continue and rainfall remains scarce, many Illinois producers are getting concerned about prospects for the 2024 crops. While it is not very productive to ask ourselves if we should have managed tillage and planting differently, remembering how this year’s crop is faring might inform some of our decisions in the future.
After a planting season that stretched from late March to mid-June and included a substantial amount of replanting, Illinois corn and soybeans are almost completely planted;…