Wheat, soybean challenges in southwestern Illinois

GREENVILLE, Ill. — Wheat and double-crop soybeans faced some adversities during their growing seasons in southwestern Illinois.

During a break in the recent Illinois Summer Wheat Forum, Illinois Wheat Association President John Howell of Red Bud gave his perspective on growing conditions to AgriNews.

“We didn’t plant corn or soybeans until around May 20-something, and, believe it or not, we were pleasantly surprised at how good the wheat quality was, especially for the amount of adversity that that crop went through,” said Howell, who farms with his father and family in Monroe and Randolph counties.

The winter wheat was sowed into very dry soil conditions, with delayed and uneven emergence, particularly on the hillsides and other areas that were dry.

“We had somewhat of an uneven crop going into November, December. Then we had a really cold snap in January that was a very sharp change in forecast from what we had seen. We’d been relatively mild, then we got moisture and a very cold snap. We stayed really cold for several weeks and did another one of those in February,” he said.

“March was relatively nice and mild. We got anhydrous put on. The first shot of nitrogen on the wheat was taken care of in a timely manner. It turned to April and it started raining. We didn’t do anything in April at all.

“We snuck in some herbicide and nitrogen applications towards the end of the April where we could make it fit, but April was really, really challenging. We got just so much rain. Certain areas caught 20-plus inches of rain in the month of April.

“The beginning part of May was very similar, stayed very, very wet. Somewhere around that Mother’s Day time period or the week after that is when we flowered. Of course, with the technologies that are out there now, with drone application methods, airplanes and helicopters, we were able to get fungicide on that wheat and a timely manner. That certainly helped.”

As harvest approached, temperatures stayed mild through the end of May and all through June.

“We probably harvested wheat about 10 days later than we should have because we had that delayed grain-fill, and that really helped us kind of rebound from a yield standpoint,” Howell said.

“We cut a lot of wheat there in that June 20-something time frame and were pleasantly surprised with yields. Sure, we had we had wet holes that that kind of drowned out, brought some averages down, but as a whole, I think everyone was really happy with their yields, their quality, and so not a whole lot to be complaining about. I mean, other than the commodity price. That certainly is hurting, but quality of the crop is really good.”

Double-crop

The delayed wheat harvest pushed back double-crop soybean planting, but it’s too early to tell what impact that will have on yields.

“Double-crop soybeans are that one that if we get a couple of rain events in late August, early September, they make tremendous soybeans. They’ve all come up right. It’s been somewhat challenging to keep them clean from a weed standpoint,” he said.

“We’ve stayed really wet through end of June and July has been a pretty wet month for July. So, keeping the double-crop soybeans clean has been somewhat challenging, but we’ve been able to get them under control and they look good. So, they’re on their way, I guess.”

Association Events

IWA’s Summer Wheat Forum on July 31 featured guest speakers Mike O’Dea, StoneX risk management consultant; Jason Mauck, Constant Canopy CEO; Jim Raftis, Illinois Department of Agriculture; along with a video message from Jerry Costello II, IDOA director. The group’s wheat yield contest winners were also announced.

The summer conference was held at the American Farm Heritage Museum in Greenville.

“We have two of these forums each year. We do a winter forum in collaboration with the Illinois Soybean Association typically in late January or early February. We’re trying to bring practical agronomic management ideas to wheat growers,” Howell noted.

“We also do a yield tour in late May where we kind of break the state up in different quadrants and have different starting points, and invite wheat growers, industry people, and the media to come scout some wheat fields with us and try to build an average for what the Illinois wheat crop is going to look like.

“We have other initiatives throughout the year, but those are kind of the big main things that we do as an association.”