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The second week of the year brought a fleeting taste of spring, with average temperatures between the mid-30s to upper 40s; 8 to 12 degrees above normal. Some of the more impressive daytime high temperatures this week included 69 in Kaskaskia and 68 in Carbondale. January to date has been 7 to 12 degrees above normal statewide, and has been a top 10 warmest first half of January on record in most parts of the state.…

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Introduction
There is a growing interest in wheat/soybean double-cropping systems in Illinois, extending into parts of central Illinois where wheat acreage has been limited in recent decades. USDA-NASS survey estimates that 60-80% of Illinois wheat acres are double-cropped with soybeans. Implementing this system in central and northern Illinois has been constrained primarily by low wheat acreage and by later wheat harvest, which often delays soybean planting until early to mid-July.…

Weed scientists at the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University Carbondale recently announced the confirmation of glufosinate resistance in Illinois waterhemp populations. Glufosinate is a non-selective herbicide most commonly applied postemergence in Illinois corn and soybean crops engineered with resistance to the herbicide. Use of glufosinate has increased over the past decade as the efficacy of other postemergence herbicides against waterhemp has been compromised through the evolution of resistance. This confirmation marks the first time that herbicides from all site-of-action groups previously effective for postemergence control of Illinois waterhemp have instances of resistance;…

Happy new year! For the first summary of 2026, we’ll take a quick look back at December and the weather year of 2025, and then look forward to the rest of winter and a bit of spring.
December was around 2.5 degrees colder than normal statewide, which was quite a contrast to a very warm fall season. However, the average temperature in December doesn’t tell the story of its huge temperature swings. Much of the state had temperatures that were 20 to 30 degrees below normal in the middle of the month,…