News

Conditions trending hot and dry in central Illinois

A central Illinois grain farmer says a hot, dry spell could stress row crops this week.

Elliott Uphoff of Shelby County tells Brownfield they haven’t had rain in a couple of weeks.

“We’re dry, but we’re not hurting yet. It’s going to be getting to that point. Probably early next week, we’re going to be needing the rain pretty bad.”

He says high daytime temperatures are making corn and soybean leaves roll.  

“I think the only saving grace is that our nighttime temperatures are still very manageable. Even though we’re getting up into the 90’s during the day, we’ve got that reprieve at night to give those crops a chance to unroll and kind of relax.”

Uphoff says they began planting shortly after Easter and had everything planted, sprayed and side dressed by the third week of May. He says crops were slow to emerge but most came up looking good, so they did not replant any fields.