The Field Report

Trent Brandenburg is watching every cloud. If it even gives a few drops of rain, he will want it to back up and try again. Trent sees his corn and soybean plants mostly off to a good start. The fields that did not get ponded by a recednt 5-inch rain are in need of a timely rain now to keep the growth going. His corn plants were planted early enough to get their root systems deep enough to get moisture from below the top layer of soil which is well dried from lack of rain.

This is the problem with the soybean fields Trent had to replant after the ponding drowned out the first seeding. The replanted soybeans are not germinating well due to the very top layer of soil being so dry. The 90-degree temperatures stress plants in dry soil. Today’s (June 1, 2023) Illinois drought map https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?IL shows moderate drought over most of east central Illinois.