Wild And Windy Winter Weekend
Trent Brandenburg and family endured a near miss yesterday as a tornado touched down a few miles from their home place. Tornadoes are a rare occurrence in December, but a “bomb cyclone” ripped through central Illinois yesterday. Houses were unroofed in Long Creek, a village a few miles southwest of Trent’s. The temperature plunged from a record-high 69 at 2 p.m. yesterday (28 December 2025) to 12 above this morning, with 45 m.p.h. wind gusts providing a “feels like” 18 below.
Trent is happy to have been spared the wind damage, but like most central Illinois farm operators, he is not happy about corn and soybean market prices. He hopes Santa got his letter, but being the pragmatic farmer he is, Trent is being careful about planning his inputs for next year. The Brandenburg family wishes you and yours a happy and prosperous New Year. If you are a landowner wanting to be more prosperous, make a New Year’s resolution to talk with Trent.
More from The Field Report
Wild And Windy Winter Weekend
Trent Brandenburg and family endured a near miss yesterday as a tornado touched down a few miles from their home place. Tornadoes are a rare occurrence in December, but a "bomb cyclone" ripped through central Illinois yesterday. Houses were unroofed [...]
Dry Weather Speeds Harvest
Trent Brandenburg is trying to get his field work done "before it rains". Much of the area Trent farms is in "extreme drought" according to the Illinois Drought Monitor https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?IL map, which is updated every Thursday. The very dry soil [...]
In a Drought, but Corn is Too Wet to Harvest
The current Illinois drought map (11 September) shows severe drought in the northern 40% of Piatt County and moderate drought in the rest of Piatt and adjacent areas of neighboring counties. Trent Brandenburg has barely started harvesting because his corn [...]