The Field Report

April 29, 2024|

Not Much Field Work This Week

Trent Brandenburg does not plan on much fieldwork for this week, starting April 29, 2024. The huge squall line that extended from Texas to Green Bay, Wisconsin, over this past weekend, was far enough west to spare central Illinois from tornadoes but dropped unwanted rain on already-wet fields. Trent estimates he has about a third of his corn and a third of his soybeans planted. He does not expect to do much field work this week due to wet soils. Hopefully, warm temperatures will speed germination if the soil is not too waterlogged. A few sunny and windy days will try the topsoil quickly.

Trent displays the optimism farmers always seem to feel during planting season. “They predicted 2 to 3 inches of rain, and we didn’t get nearly that,” he observed, happy to have been spared ponding in his fields. The closest Illinois Soil Moisture sampling location to Trent’s farmland is in Champaign. The current data shows near-record high moisture at the 4-inch and 20-inch levels, and in the upper 80 per cent of record high at the 8-inch level. This is a marked improvement over the chronic drought of recent years, particularly at the 20-inch level.

More from The Field Report

Corn Looks “Amazingly Well” For Bad Planting Conditions

July 9, 2019|

Trent Brandenburg said, "The corn looks amazingly well for the conditions it was planted in. He continued, "Beans are a different story. There aren't any nice-looking bean fields because of the spotty germination."

Latest Planting Year Ever Experienced

June 3, 2019|

Trent Brandenburg says 2019 is the latest planting year he ever experienced. At the end of May, he has planted NO soybeans and has about 140 acres of corn left to plant. His earliest-planted corn (April) is up 8 to 12 inches and looking good. The rest of his corn "is all over the place, from 3 to 4 inches tall on up." None of his seed was planted in ideal conditions, "but the calendar says you have to," Trent added wryly.

  • Wet-Corn-Field-Midwest-copyright-Virginia Dahms

“I’ll Take It Not Getting Wetter”

May 2, 2019|

At the end of April, 2019, Trent Brandenburg has only 100 acres of corn planted. He is usually nearly done with planting at this time of year. "It'd be different if I was the only farmer in Illinois who didn't have a crop in," Trent observed. "I've planted corn in May before and it did fine."

Wet Soil Planting Delay? Too Soon To Tell

March 26, 2019|

Trent Brandenburg is not happy about the prospect of "a couple more inches" of rain this week. The soil is already too wet to work, he noted, but there is no standing water. "If it warms up, it will dry out fast," he observed. So "it's too soon to tell." Trent does not expect to plant anything before April tenth "at the earliest."

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