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Central IL specialty grower hoping for rainy winter
A central Illinois specialty grower says 2024 was a profitable year despite the dry finish.
Clint Bland, who raises grass finished beef, poultry, eggs, and vegetables at Bland Family Farm in Jacksonville, Illinois, says the fall drought made irrigation essential.
“Got really dry toward the end, so that made it a little bit difficult.” He says, “We do some irrigation off a well that we had put in, and we were running that well dry trying to get these fall carrots irrigated because they take a lot of moisture.”
However, he tells Brownfield the rest of the operation benefitted from early season rains.
“Overall, we had a great crop of onions. Great crop of potatoes.” He says, “We had some great early rain so that really helped it out. Good pasture. Cows were doing good early. We did have to start, you know, feeding some hay a little bit early, but the haying season went really well. We got a lot of bales put up for winter here, so we’re set pretty well to get ready to start 2025.”
Bland says he’d like to see a rainy winter to not only recharge subsoil moistures before spring planting, but also his well.
Clint Bland – Bland Family Farms
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