Dry Areas

Dry Areas

weather

Last week was pretty good for most of Illinois from a rainfall standpoint, but there were gaps in the West South Central area especially.  Some areas got very little rainfall.  Crops are starting to show a good bit of stress.  The photo below was on some sandy soils in St. Charles County, Mo.  The areas of burned up corn will continue to get larger every day now.

Past 7 Days Rainfall

Past 7 Days Rainfall

corn Crop Condition weather

We have just had several days of wet weather.  You could get the idea that the effects of dry weather have been averted.  If you study the map, You will find that there are many areas that had only a half inch, especially to the west. On the plus side, many parts of Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Indiana had good rain.  Some of the early planted corn is good till silking time, which is coming in two weeks.  Later planted corn was helped as far as getting roots to grow deeper, but probably more than half of the corn I have seen will need more rain to assure a decent crop.  I have not seen anything that leads me to believe that corn yields will be above trend line.  Early planted soybeans are looking good, but later planted soybeans have population issues.

Dry Weather Reprieve

Dry Weather Reprieve

weather

Many dry areas of the Midwest had decent amounts of rain in the past two days. Areas below in blue and gray did not get much rain.  There are still acreage in southeast Iowa, Northwest Missouri and parts of Illinois, that did not get enough rain.  Those areas are in the heart of the corn belt.  This rain will not carry through the growing season except on some early planted corn.  Green areas below will be needing more rain in two weeks. This was certainly a welcome rain.  There is potential for more rain in the next few days.

Road Trip North and West

Road Trip North and West

Crop Condition weather

Weekend travels took us to Pella, Iowa for a family visit.  Some corn in Pike Co is in the V-8 to V-10 stage. On Friday, some corn in Pike County was starting to roll because of low humidity and high winds.  On the return trip, corn on the sandy soils had turned white.

Irrigation rigs were running in the Mississippi River bottoms as we traveled north. There were still a few planters in the field Friday.  Most of the soybeans in Iowa were V-1 to V-3.  It was interesting that almost no beans in Iowa were planted in 30 inch rows.

High winds, low humidity and high temperatures continued for our entire visit.  Corn in Iowa was V-3 to V-6 stage, so fortunately water requirements were lower than for some of the Illinois Corn.  In Iowa, people were already talking drought, although crops looked OK even as we traveled home Sunday.  To give and idea of the conditions though, I will comment that upper leaves on trees were wilted because they could not take up water fast enough.

Without regard to dry conditions, crops generally looked better in Iowa than they do in Illinois because soils were dryer for planting in Iowa.    

Rain in the forecast on Wednesday could help to rescue the corn from significant damage.

Rainfall Shortage?

Rainfall Shortage?

Soil Moisture weather

We have been hearing some concerns expressed about dry soils in our area.  Rainfall the past week should have relieved that concern in the short run.

Topsoil moisture on Wednesday when we went to the field was just OK.  Topsoil should be well soaked at this point.  Septic tank borings through the winter to a depth of 5 feet have showed that subsoil was at least moist and in some places saturated,

Soil Moisture does not change much until tillage and transpiration start.  In a dry period it is easy to mess up your topsoil moisture with too much tillage.  With wetter topsoil, that is even easier to do.

The real problem is that through the winter, the rainfall pattern was a dry one. Until the past 2 days, I can't remember the last time we had at least an inch of rain.  If that dry pattern were to continue into the summer, crop yields would suffer.  The fact is that we cannot grow top yielding crops without timely rains in June, July, and August.      

Rainfall Departure form Normal

Rainfall Departure form Normal

Rainfall weather

Rainfall amounts are looking good in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois.  Right now, It looks like we are on the brink of being wet.  Indiana and Ohio are still on the dry side.  

Road Trip to Bloomington

Road Trip to Bloomington

Crop Condition weather

Yesterday I went to Bloomington for a meeting.  We drove past a lot of nice looking corn.  While we were there, a small amount of rain fell on part of that hole I have been talking about.  In some cases, the soil did not even look damp when we returned home.  About  a half inch fell in Hillsboro at least in my gauge.  The garden looked damp until noon.

Areas Short on Rain

Areas Short on Rain

weather

Shown below is the rainfall map for the past 7 days.  The hole in the middle is mainly south central and southern Illinois.  The areas that got a good amount of rain are set for good pollination. Some of the southern Illinois area is just now recovering from excessive rainfall, so the situation is not as bleak as it may look,  but many of the the counties in white or light blue need a shower.  Is  it drought?  Maybe.  Can we recover?  A timely rain would help.

Past 60 Days Rainfall

Past 60 Days Rainfall

Rainfall weather

Several people have asked about rainfall amounts recently, so I thought it was time to get a map from National Weather Service.  The map shows the past 60 days.  I darkened the Illinois border.  While it seemed like a wet spring because of the number of days of missed field work, rainfall amounts have been moderate except for the southern 100 or so miles of Illinois. Rainfall amounts around the first of the year were excessive, so we still have good subsoil moisture.  We have done septic tank investigations regularly this spring and except yesterday, we have had a water table in the subsoil at some point.  While things are starting to dry out, and we are seeing corn starting to roll in some areas, we are still a long way from a severe drought.  We are getting in to the part of summer when rainfall amounts are highly variable, but as long as storms keep moving through, there is always a chance to get some rain. As in many years, corn yields will be made by a timely rain in mid-July.

Rainfall Past 60 Days

Weather Spotter Training

Weather Spotter Training

weather

Yesterday I went to weather spotter class.  I have gone 3 times and learned some new stuff each time.  The NWS instructor had some impressive video of the El Reno OK tornado.  I recommend that farmers and others who work outdoors a lot to go to the class.  It is good to learn how to read the clouds and know if you are going to get soaked or if you could get blown away.  They always say how much they depend on spotters for reports on tornadoes, hail, and snow.  There things that can only be seen in person.  They rely a lot on the trainded spotters.  THere were around 50 people last night.

Dear Mother Nature, I would like some winter

Dear Mother Nature, I would like some winter

Humor weather winter

Geranium foliage, late fall

Dear Mother Nature,

I would like some winter, please and thank you.  I love my winter. I don't want my winter to be like fall or spring.

Winter gives me the freedom to leave the garden for a bit and turn my attention to other activities like reading about gardening, napping and dreaming about gardening, and  convincing myself it is too cold to be out in the

Enjoy each flower as it blooms

Enjoy each flower as it blooms

bulbs weather

Crocus speciosus

I like to think if you blinded folded me and lead me gently to the center of my garden on any given day of the year, and then took off the blindfold, I could look around and tell you about what time of year it was, give or take a week or two.

Today, I'd be off by a few weeks because this autumn crocus is blooming and I think it's early.

I usually look for the autumn crocus,

We'll call this "The Summer it Rained A Lot"

We'll call this "The Summer it Rained A Lot"

Humor weather

Zinnias and dill from the garden

I'm trying out different names to describe this summer in future years.   So far, the name that seems to fit the best is "The Summer it Rained A Lot".

It seems like we have an hour of sunshine, and then it gets cloudy and rains for days.  An hour of sunshine, then days of rain.

I'm sure it hasn't been that much rain but it has been more than the normal amount

I will when Mother Nature says I can

I will when Mother Nature says I can

Humor weather

When will I next be able to head out to the garden to weed or perhaps mow and trim the lawn?

When Mother Nature says I can.

And right now Mother Nature is speaking the language of rain.

When it is flat-out raining, she is saying "No, do not go out to the garden."

When it rains in the morning or overnight, that's her way of saying, "You can garden this evening, but please put on a good

Rainfall Past 7 Days

Rainfall Past 7 Days

Crop Condition weather

It seems like the rain has never stopped for the last 10 days.  The last 7 days have been especially rainy.  Below is from National Weather Service for the past 7 days.  Below I-70 there is a lot in the 6 to 10 inch range.  Most fields in our area have standing water all over.  The only good thing is that corn is getting big, so we can't see how bad it  looks.  IT looks like rain will continue this week.  Click to enlarge.

Very Wet

Very Wet

flooding weather

The photo below shows the Mississippi River out of bank at Alton. I took a trip to Portage Des Sioux today and did not see any dry land.  I have not heard anyone talk prevented planting on soybeans, but it could happen.  The Missouri River is also out of bank.

Clark Bridge at Alton, IL

Wet weather

Wet weather

Corn Condition Soybean Condition weather

We are getting a lot of rain this weekend. 1 to 3 inches. Corn is already showing effects of cold and wet.  There are still fields of soybeans to plant.  Corn prices remain in the dumper.

Rainy Weekend

Rainy Weekend

weather

Lots of people were thinking they needed rain.  It was a rainy weekend in most of the state.  Only the Northwest corner got less than an inch.  We have a crew working in the quadi Cities area right now to take advantage of the dryer weather in that area.  We are looking for another 2 week window to finish sampling corn ground.  We would also like everyone to get soybeans planted.  Click to enlarge. the National Weather Service Map.

Past 4 days rainfall

Weather and Crop Report

Weather and Crop Report

Crop Condition weather

I finally found  a moment to look over this week's weather and crop report.  It seems to be accurate for my area.  WSW. It said as of Sunday 82% of corn was planted.  I would say it was at 100 % now, but I saw an Anhydrous wagon in an unplanted field, so maybe it is 99 %.  Most people in our area have some soybeans planted and some people are finished with soybeans too.  We would have liked to start planting a bit earlier, but everyone seems to have caught a favorable window at this point.

15% in our area were reporting dry topsoil, but I can tell you that I have not bored a dry hole yet.  Some ground that was worked too wet, needed a rain to soften up.  That was even the case in my garden. We have had between a half inch of rain and two inches so far, so we are looking good or slightly wet.  The next window of field work will see most soybeans planted as well.  Conditions should be ideal at that point.

Soil Moisture and Rainfall

Soil Moisture and Rainfall

weather

Today I took a little roadtrip to Nashville, IL.  With melting snow and rain falling, you could think that soil moisture must be very good.  I looked up the 90 day rainfall maps on national weather Service web site.  It shows most of Illinois is normal to slightly below normal. Click on the maps to see the amounts better.  Seeing that many areas are as much as 4 inches below normal might raise a concern, but at this time of year we can catch up fairly quickly.  The few deep borings I have done this winter would lead me to believe that moisture is not a concern at all right now.  Asa always, timely summer rainfall can make a big difference for growing crops.

Last 90 days Departure from Normal