Illinois Farm Families Blog

A WatchUsGrow.org reader recently asked us to define "modern farm equipment," so we put the challenge to our bloggers to share what's new on their farms. This is the third part of that series.

A new gadget we just love is our wireless rain gauge! As you probably all know, rain is very important to farmers. Too much or too little rain during the planting, growing and harvesting seasons is a constant concern on the farm. In the spring, we hope for just enough rain to provide moist, but not wet, topsoil for the planted seeds.  Tracking the rainfall and observing weather patterns and forecasts are part of our daily "chores". 

This wireless rain gauge helps to make that chore easier.  The gauge has a large, 6-inch collector component that we mounted on the post. The collector is self-emptying for better accuracy. Our old gauge had to be emptied by hand. The monitor sits on my kitchen windowsill. It features a 24-hour rainfall display and an accumulative display--up to 99 inches! The wireless rain gauge is one of the more simple technologies we have on the farm but it is one of the most useful!

Donna Jeschke, Mazon

You know you’ve had too much rain when your rain gauge can’t measure it.

I cannot remember ever getting this much rain at once. I guesstimated we received a solid 6 inches in less than 24 hours last week. I remember the Flood of ’93, when I wondered if the sun would ever shine again. Yet the river that borders our family’s home farm crested at or near a record high this week. The river in a short time spilled into all the unbelievable places it flooded 20 years ago and more.

In the past week, the stories flowed as much as the excess water. Local schools cancelled. Sump pumps sold out in the nearest city. For a short time, our small town’s railroad viaduct likened a swimming pool. Culverts roared like freight trains.

Meanwhile, our cold, wet fields got colder and wetter. And now some fields need repair before planting.  For many of the region’s farmers, the torrential rain cut soils and moved corn and soybean residue into piles.

The rain gauge and below-normal temperatures are getting a lot more attention than we’d like these days. That’s because “these days” we’re supposed to be planting corn and soon soybeans. As frustrating and mood-dampening as it is, we can’t control the weather. If I could, the highest temperature would be 85 degrees during corn pollination and it would snow on Christmas Day (big flakes, light accumulation).

We’re just anxious, prepped like sprinters in the starting block. And it’s taking a long time for the starting gun to fire. We enter the week of what university experts usually consider prime corn planting time, roughly April 20 to 25 in our area. And we cannot get in the field. We still have time to plant crops into May, and they can be good crops. We keep an eye on the forecast and will feel better when we get through planting season and enter growing season – when timely, gentle rains are always welcome!

In the meantime, we fished in the farm pond on a couple warmer days and completed rainy day jobs. The guys repaired a barn roof. They added windows and doors to a potting shed (rather a remodeled old hog house). Here we care for more than 50 chicks. Most are broilers, intended for meat production and will be shared with family and friends. About a half dozen more will start to lay eggs late this summer.

The chicks certainly have been a better sign of spring than the weather.

 Joanie Stiers
Williamsfield, IL

This past week we enjoyed cooler temps for most of the week with highs in the mid to upper 80 degrees, thanks to the cool front of the previous week, giving the air conditioners and crops a break. Unfortunately we didn’t receive any rain and temperatures returned to the upper 90’s by the end of the week.

Combines continue to roll through corn fields as the earliest planted corn dries down. Farmers are concern about the fragile stalk quality and are harvesting fields where corn has gone down. Moisture levels range from 18 to 28 percent and yields ranging from 70 bu. per acre on the rolling soils to 120 in the creek bottoms. There still are reports of exceptionally low yields in the area where adjusted yields are a total loss and farmers chopping these fields for silage to provide feed for cattle.

Soybean fields are about waist high on average and are setting additional pods. Many of these pods are thin. The earliest pods on the plant may have 1 to 2 developing seeds in them. There still is hope for a near average crop provided we receive some rain.

Local grain bids are; corn $7.76, soybeans $17.31, and wheat $8.34.

Have a safe week. 

David Hankammer
Farmer
St. Clair County, IL

 I had to chuckle just a bit when one of my girlfriends complained that it was too hot to take her kids to the pool this past weekend. "Unless you are in the water, it's just too hot to be outside," said my friend, who is a mother of two.
While most of the country is experiencing one of the hottest summers on record, and the kind of severe drought that hasn’t been seen for nearly a quarter of a century, farmers are the ones really experiencing the toll.

As a mother of three, I'm concerned for my children spending too much time outdoors in the excessive heat. "Drink plenty of water, come inside and put on more sunscreen, get in the shade!" I’ve been heard saying more times than I care to count. However, for many dairy farmers like my husband, Scott, they really worry about the cows and the crops.

Cows are much more tolerant of weather than people, but a farmer still takes exceptional care of cows, especially during this hot weather.

Our milk cows are housed in a free-stall barn, where they have 24/7 access to fresh feed and water, and can lie down or walk around at their leisure. The barns are equipped with large fans running 24 hours a day, so they can have constant cool air flow.

Our cows are also cooled off with sprinklers as they enter and exit the milking parlor. Jersey cows at Bohnert farm can lie down on new mattresses we added last month, giving them that extra cushion to help keep them cool and comfortable.

Like many dairy farmers, Scott clocks in many hours during the summer months. He wakes early to mix fresh feed for the cows to eat during the cooler mornings, and does it again after the sun has gone down and the thermometer has dropped, encouraging the cows to eat and drink as much as possible. All of our cows, both big and small, are closely watched to make sure they stay healthy.

Honestly, we can do more for our cows than we can do for our crops in the heat. We farm on sandy ground with no irrigation, which generally hasn’t been a problem until now. To say the crops need a drink of water would be an understatement. Our insurance representative is reporting a significant loss for our farm, but we try to remain optimistic. Others have it worse. We are fortunate at Bohnert Farm that we still have nine months of feed on hand.

Funny how we now consider mid-to-high 80s a cool front. However, these cooler temperatures brought much-needed rain —enough to settle the dust, make the corn stretch a bit, and give all our Jersey cows and kids of all ages a bigger smile.
And, for the first time in more than a decade of living in Illinois, I have gotten used to the heat and humidity. Not sure that's a good thing, but I realized that I can handle it, especially if my husband and so many other dairy farmers and livestock caretakers can work in this climate day-in, day-out, to assure that our animals continue to be cared for well.

Karen Bohnert
Bohnert Jerseys
East Moline, IL

 Our kids made up a rain song with hand motions. (Bible School will do that to a kid.) 

They created and practiced the rain-welcoming song in the van as we drove past corn fields with browning, burnt leaves on a July day. Any green leaves were rolled in defense against the scorching sun. The kids’ performance earned smiles and hugs from Grandma, who spent the previous hour watching rain showers form and fizzle on the radar. The precipitation pattern had dampened our spirits rather than our crops, but the kids made it seem better.

As I write this, much of the Corn Belt is in a drought, and it worsens each day without rain. We need gentle, soaking rains. The kind the kids like to run through with the water sprinkler.

In mid-June, our corn and soybean crops looked great in our west/northwest spot in Illinois. By mid-July, we needed rain more often and weren’t getting enough to adequately deal with the 100-degree temps. Then, the 90-degree days followed. That heat wave mimicked the sub-zero cold of winter to our kids: Uncomfortable and unsafe to play outside for long periods. We pulled out the board games and played in the basement. All the while our crops, garden and Grandpa’s pastures baked like a juicy, medium-well steak approaching overdone with no moisture. So did our yard, but I don’t miss mowing.

The kids were singing for rain, our church friend forwarded an e-mail praying for rain, and the need for rain molded small talk with business acquaintances. Any acquaintances, really. Signs of a darkening horizon prompted a dash to the computer to watch a light shower pop up and fade away like slow-motion fireworks. Farmers practically memorized the date, quantity and field location of any rainfall.

The crop, as I’m writing this, doesn’t appear that it will reach its full potential and likely will vary from poor to good. It’s disheartening to helplessly watch your crops decline. Yet, we are thankful for what we have because it seems far more than our fellow family farmers in the southern two-thirds of Illinois and other states. Corn needs around 20 inches from rains and stored moisture. Our business friend in Indiana by mid-July had seen less than 2 inches of rain since their corn was planted. I’ve heard worse from southern Illinois at less than a half inch.

I’m too young to have grown my own crops in a devastating drought. The last widespread drought was in 1988, when my family had to haul water to the cattle and house wells and when crops burnt up and yielded half their potential. Some areas in Illinois and the Midwest say that dreadful season has repeated.

Crop values rose sharply higher in July in anticipation of a shortage of corn and soybeans, crops found in vehicle fuel, livestock feed, cereal, soda, diapers and batteries. We could pre-sell more crops at these high prices, yet we don’t know what amount we will harvest. You just try not to let the weather situation sour your mood.

And ask the kids for an encore.

 Joanie Stiers

Farm Woman

The past week we experienced some relief in daytime temps after some scatter storms moved through the region the weekend of July 7. With some areas receiving up to 3 plus inches of rain, temperatures for the week cooled down to the chilly low 90’s for daytime highs. Unfortunately, rainfall wasn’t widespread with much of the region receiving no rain.

Corn planted in early to mid-May seems to be catching up on its growth with many of those fields extending tassels and entering the pollination stage. Heat stress remained apparent on the entire crop by upright pointed leaves during the day, as the plants try to conserve moisture. On some recent trips in the region, the damage to the crop is apparent with several fields having short plants and the lower leaves already brown. Dry, brown plants can be seen on some of the lighter soils in some fields.

The first crop soybeans seem to remain resilient to the drought. Most fields are about knee high and have started to bloom. Some farmers are spraying their fields to control high population of spider mites infesting their fields due to the dry conditions.

Double-cropped soybeans are about 4 inches tall. Some farmers are experiencing some plant loss in the dryer parts of their fields. The young plants just ran out of moisture to survive. Fields with adequate plant population and growth potential are being treated with herbicides to control newly emerged and existing weeds since wheat harvest.

Local grain bids are corn $7.57, soybeans $16.11, and wheat $8.04.

Stay cool, pray for rain, and have a safe week.

David Hankammer

Farmer

St. Clair County

This past week was another mostly dry and warm one. Some rain showers passed through the area late evening on June 17. Rainfall amounts varied from 2 to 4 tenths in the county. Although rain was forecasted later in the week, it didn’t materialize. Temperature highs for the week were in the mid 90’s with low humidity.

On the bright side we finally received enough moisture to germinate seed in the dry bare areas of both corn and soybean fields. There was an enough plant emergence to change decisions to replant these areas that have been bare for 3 to 4 weeks.

Corn planted in early April is starting to tassel. There was a report of corn in the southern part of the county of being four foot tall and tasseling. This is an area of the county which has received very little rain since the beginning of April.

Soybeans plants are approximately 6 inches tall and farmers are post treating these fields for weeds. Water hemp is the obvious weed in many fields and it’s amazing how quickly this weed will grow despite the dry conditions. Herbicide application has been a challenge due to the high, warm winds that seem to start early in the day.

Double crop soybean planting went as quick as wheat harvest. Plant emergence is going well due to the much needed rain at the time of planting.

Continue to pray for rain and have a good week.

David Hankammer

Farmer

This past week has been consistent in respect to the weather. It was dry and the temperature high was in the low 80’s. Despite a promising chance of rain for the beginning of the week, only a few areas received a couple tenths of an inch. Most of the area remained dry.

The corn crop is developing well on soil moisture. However it is showing signs of stress by rolling and pointing its leaves upward toward the sky, begging for rain. Some of the fields planted in mid-May on rolling ground have areas that haven’t emerged yet and the viability of the seed is starting to become a concern. Weed control is becoming a challenge. Areas of some fields which had previously held water from heavy spring rain are experiencing an outbreak of water hemp and climbing milkweed. The other extreme are fields which received very little rain to fully activate herbicides and begs the question to the level of weed control remaining for the season.

The soybean crop is also having similar problems due to the dry conditions despite rapid and timely planting. There are a lot of uneven stands of soybeans due to the dry soil.

One bright spot to the dry conditions is that it has dried the wheat crop down to favorable conditions, allowing harvest to move into full swing. Report of yields varies from the high forties to mid-sixties bushel per acre.

Hopefully a shower of rain will pass your way in the coming week.

Local grain bids are corn $6.15, soybeans $14.32, and wheat $6.18.

David Hankammer
Farmer
St. Clair County, IL

The past week has been another dry week despite the promising potential of rain in the weather forecasts. After threats of thunderstorms from the west, the week ended with approximately four-tenths of an inch total rainfall from two separate showers. The first shower disappeared quickly due to the dry soil and warm temperatures. The second shower provided a greater benefit due to overcast skies and cooler temps, allowing the moisture to move to the root zone of the growing crop. Daytime temperatures cooled down to the low 80’s from the previous week highs of the mid 90’s.

The corn is quickly growing due to the cooler temps. Plant height ranges from 4 inches to waist high. The plant roots are down in the soil moisture and reaching deeper. There are areas lying in dry soil waiting for moisture to germinate it. Hopefully we received enough moisture get these areas growing.

Many of the early planted soybean fields have emerged and can be seen down the row. However, a large number of fields were planted during the week of high temperatures and like the corn; some of seed is in dry soil. Hopefully the rainfall was enough to get it spouted and keep it growing.

Some farmers have tried to combine wheat this week but found that the crop isn’t as matured as it appears. After inspecting our fields, I notice the grain is still soft and substantial number of stalks with green color remaining. Wheat harvest is still several days away.

Local grain bids are corn $5.07, soybeans $13.34, and wheat $6.13.

Have a great week.

David G. Hankammer
Farmer
St. Clair County