cropCENTRAL | Field Crop Production Resources

As our earlier planted corn begins to tassel, folks who have experienced corn leaf aphid outbreaks the last couple of years should begin scouting. This insect remains an uncommon pest; however, several hybrids were affected both during the rather large outbreak we experienced in 2024 in central Illinois and in 2025, when overall corn leaf aphid numbers were much closer to what we see in a typical year. Most pest aphids are sensitive to differences in cultivar,…

The following is a summary of the WILLAg.org content from the work week ending June 26, 2026. WILLAg.org is a partnership of Illinois Public Media and University of Illinois Extension. Its mission is to distribute regionally, nationally, and internationally information and analysis of commodity markets and agricultural weather.
Agricultural Markets Synthesis
The agricultural commodity markets throughout the week of June 22, 2026, experienced a distinct seasonal downtime, driven heavily by investment funds liquidating long positions of over three billion bushels across corn,…

 
by Trent Ford, State Climatologist
ISWS PRI University of Illinois
We wrap up another week of wild weather in the prairie state. Average temperatures this week ranged from the mid-60s in northern Illinois to the mid-70s in southern Illinois, between 1 and 8 degrees below average. This week brought more beautiful evening and morning temperatures, and a few hours of chillier conditions including nighttime lows of 48 degrees in Rock Island and 52 in Champaign.…

Steve Brand – Commercial Agronomy Specialist
DeKalb County
Soil Conditions: Severely Wet (ground is saturated, standing water is abundant, flooding may be present)
What a turn of events over the last couple of weeks from the start of the season. Heavy rains, hail, strong winds, and even tornadoes have brought us out of the early drought and well past into extremely saturated soils. Areas hit hard by storms have significant standing water,…