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Corn and soybeans struggle in dry Illinois heat

The lack of rain is impacting an Illinois farmer’s crops.  Mark Krausz farms in southern Illinois and he is also the President of the Illinois Wheat Association.  Krausz tells Brownfield his corn and soybeans are really struggling. “We haven’t had any, like a tenth and maybe two-tenths twice. One was a tenth and one was a tenth-and-a-half actually since the first part of May. We’re really dry.”

Krausz says drought-tolerant seed genetics have helped the crops survive the dry spell, and he believes his fields benefited from the wind direction somewhat. “I think we’re lucky we had, or blessed I guess that we had this cloud cover from the fires in Canada that shielded us from the last round of the heat a little bit.”

Krausz is expecting a corn and soybean yield hit this year and says many farmers who traditionally double-crop soybeans after wheat will be planting into dry soil because they’re running out of calendar days and not because the soybeans will emerge well.  He says most farms in his region are not irrigated and rely on rainfall.