Driving through the rows as I sidedress nitrogen, I am looking at a nice uniform corn crop with some great potential. But we are running out of moisture as the dry spell persists into its third week. The crop is rooting down well, which can be a very positive thing, but at some point soon, w…

Fields look good and early season crop care passes are coming along very well. We have had some very nice weather, maybe just a little low for optimum crop development. After a week of no measurable precipitation, fields are progressing toward drier than we would like. Maybe I’m getting impa…

Planting season is finished, and growing season is upon us here in Coles County. The best news is the weather has been warm enough to finally motivate crops to get growing. Early-planted corn put in just after Easter took over two weeks to get out of the ground; the last of the planted corn …

Hopefully the cold pattern is about to wrap up and temperatures start acting more like normal for this time of year. Several have wrapped up planting; it basically came down to how much each farmer dared to put in with the cold dips we had. The remaining producers hit the fields hard last we…

It was a mid-throttle week in the fields. Fields quickly dried out after last weekend’s rains, and many went out and did at least something. Another forecasted round of rain and frosty temperatures (as of Thursday) have many being cautious on seeding, especially corn. Volatile winds have gro…

Coles County fields are alive with the sound of horsepower. Sprayers, spreaders, ammonia applicators, trucks, cultivators and planters, basically everything but the combines, are out and about. Since the day after Easter, the countryside has been buzzing with action in the fields that are fi…