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Excessive rain threatens yield, halts fieldwork for Illinois farmer

A central Illinois farmer says it will be hard to tell how much damage weekend rains caused crops until the water subsides.

“Did it take the top end yield off most of our farm? It very well could have.”

Reid Thompson farms 3400 acres of corn and soybeans east of Bloomington in McLean County. He tells Brownfield he got anywhere from 5-10” on his fields and drier soils took the first couple pretty well.

“While we did have excess flooding, we also needed about half of what we got- we just needed it over four or five days instead of that one-hour time frame. So, it is definitely going to cut some yields. Did it take 10% away? It is hard to say yet.”

Thompson says this is a year that his cover crops could really pay off.

“Our fields all had pretty good residue built up on them and good root structure from the last couple years of over crops that will help absorb the extra water.”

He says one of his biggest concerns from the event is the disruption to field work as he would like to get nitrogen applications done ahead of tasseling and fungicides on to combat disease pressure that will heighten in the current hot, humid conditions.