Timely Rain Helps Corn And Beans
Trent Brandenburg is happy to have received more than an inch of rain on his dry fields in mid-July. After scouting his crops to determine drought damage, he concluded that the corn pollination hadn’t gotten far enough along to be seriously damaged.
Corn is tasseling, and although it may not be as tall as in some recent years, both corn and beans now look good, he said.
The latest edition of the Illinois Drought Monitor Map issued on July 14, 2022, shows most of Piatt, Douglas, and Champaign Counties in “Severe Drought.” With some rain predicted for the next few days and Saturday night/Sunday, Trent feels safe from too much yield loss due to the recent dry spell. Like the experienced farmer he is, Trent cautions, “There may be hidden damage we can’t see, but right now it looks good.”
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 [...]