Trying various techniques helps farmers make decisions for 2026 growing season

LELAND, Ill. — With harvest complete and cover crops planted, work at Riskedal Farms is focusing on repairing machinery and deciding what changes they will make for the 2026 growing season.

“We were done harvesting in October except for the sunflowers that came out the first week of November,” said Brad Riskedal who farms together with his son, Stephen, and his dad, Steve.

The two fields of sunflowers were grown on Matt Johnson and Steve Jameson’s farms, the two families that the Riskedals cooperate with for their farming operation.

“The sunflowers did OK, but some things that we tried we think hurt them so we can probably do better on the crop rotation and intercropping,” Brad noted.

“We’ll probably go back to 30-inch rows instead of 10-inch rows,” Stephen said.

“And we are going to put the companion crops between the rows, instead of in the row with the sunflower plants,” Brad said.

Sunflowers are the last crop to harvest in the fall because it takes a while for them to dry down.

“You need to harvest them on the right, sunny day and they will pick up moisture when it rains,” Brad explained.

“The backs on the heads of the sunflowers are like a sponge,” Stephen said. “We use our combine to harvest them with a specialty head for sunflowers.”

Corn and soybean yields for the La Salle County farmers were average this year.

“We tried a lot of different stuff and we found out what the limits are, which will help in the future,” Brad said. “We cut nitrogen a little too hard, but we raised 240-bushel corn on four-tenths of a pound of nitrogen per bushel, which was above Actual Production History.”

Sorghum was a new crop for the Riskedals and they were a little disappointed with the yield.

“The plant population was too light and weed control was an issue, so next year we are going to work on better timing for spraying,” Stephen said.

“I think plant population was a big factor in weed control because we had about half of the population that we targeted,” he explained. “I targeted 115,000 and in most areas the actual stand was 60,000 to 80,000, so I think that contributed to a lot of grass weed escapes.”

Sorghum will be in the crop rotation in 2026.

“I still like it as a crop to break up disease and insect cycles,” Stephen said. “I think it is beneficial long term.”

Cover Crop

The Riskedals plant the majority of their soybeans into a standing rye crop.

“We know that cereal rye takes up nitrogen, that’s why we don’t like to plant corn into it,” Stephen said. “With nitrogen, goes sulfur and soybeans don’t need nitrogen, but they do need sulfur.”

Several people have recommended to include sulfur with the first herbicide pass for soybeans.

“That will feed the soybean plants earlier, because sulfur is tied up by the rye, as well,” Stephen said. “People have seen that sulfur gets the beans up and growing faster, so I will be trying that in 2026.”

Stephen planted a cereal rye rate plot this fall.

“I have a lot of people ask me what rate to plant their cereal rye and we go through a discussion of their goals such as erosion control, weed control and how they plan to terminate the crop in the spring,” he said.

“All our cover crops went in at 60 pounds per acre,” said Stephen, who is a farmer dealer for GreenCover Seed. “For the rate plot, I did full-length passes across the field at 20-, 40-, 60-, 80-, 100- and 120-pounds per acre.”

The cover crop plot was planted on Oct. 31.

“I expect the 20-pound per acre will have more weeds come through early in the season than the 60- or 80-pound per acre planting,” Stephen said. “But this will be beneficial to reference to local farmers as they are looking at what rate to plant.”

There are also differences in the quality of rye seed.

“We started out with VNS or variety not stated rye, which will have a variation on germination timing, growth and when it enters its reproduction stage,” Stephen said. “And that is really important when it comes to roller crimping.”

Now the Riskedals only use variety specific rye.

“We get better stand establishment, it germinates quicker and its more uniform which is easier to manage,” Stephen said. “And we should get better benefits from it.”

Cover crops were intercropped when they planted wheat this year, Brad said, and the stand looks beautiful.

“We blend in radishes, lentils and flax in the row with the wheat,” Stephen said. “The cover crops grow in the fall to help feed the soil biology and sequester nutrients.”

“They will all winter kill, leaving the nutrients right there for the roots of the wheat next spring,” he explained. “That worked well for us in 2025; we didn’t see any yield drag from doing that, so we did it again this year.”

“Next spring will be our first year of planting corn behind grazing cattle,” Brad said. “We ran a strip-till bar through different parts of that field and the tilth is turning out beautiful so we are excited about how it will look next year.”

Cattle Grazing

The calves have been grazing on a field with a 12-way cover crop blend since the beginning of September.

“I advertised on Facebook to sell some of them to local people and the first people are coming to pick up some of the cattle later today,” Stephen said.

“The remainder of what I’m not keeping or have not been purchased, I am going to take to a couple of sale barns in mid-December,” he said. “Later today, I’m going to weigh some to figure out their rate of gain, but they have been eating great and their health is good.”

Stephen has been working to determine the optimum pen size and shape for the cattle to graze.

“I’m trying to get even manure distribution, eating of the cover crops and trampling,” he noted.

“We have learned that smaller pens are better, so we are moving the cattle every day instead of every four to five days,” he said. “Now I am working towards more square pens versus long-narrow pens that were the full length of the field.”

After observing the cattle this year, Stephen is evaluating which crops to include in the cover crop blend next year.

“GreenCover has a cucurbit blend that includes pumpkins, squash, gourds and watermelon — maybe I will add just a half of a pound of that per acre,” he said.

“Those plants vine out, and if there is a skip in the field where other plants didn’t grow, they’ll throw a leaf there,” he explained. “One guy said the calves figured out they could stomp on the mini watermelons and eat the inside, so he watched the calves running all over looking for them.”

In Stephen’s field, when the calves go into a new area of the field, the first crops they graze are the sorghum seeds and sunflower heads.

“Within the first hour after being in a new paddock, the sunflowers are gone,” he said. “Sunflowers will be in the blend next year.”

Next spring, Stephen will be closely watching the volunteer plants that grow in this field.

“I had sorghum, buckwheat, sunflowers and millet go to seed,” he said. “If I have a bunch of volunteer sorghum in the corn, that’s a problem so it’s on my radar to watch that.”

Conservation Award

At the end of November, the Riskedal family was presented the La Salle County Conservation Family of the Year award by the La Salle County Soil and Water Conservation District in recognition of the various practices they have been incorporating into their farming operation.

“The award was a complete surprise,” Brad said. “We started on this path not expecting that at all.”

“I really enjoyed the reception during that event. It was a lot of fun to have conversations with local farmers,” Stephen said. “We’ve been open about sharing what we do because we can all learn from each other.”

Candle Business

December is a busy time for the Country Lights candle business that is operated by Stephen’s older brother, Darren, and his wife, Kendall, from their home in southern Wisconsin.

“Most of the groups will be finishing up their fundraising after Thanksgiving, so I’m trying to make sure I have enough candles on the shelves,” Darren said.

He built an app that organizations can use for taking electronic orders for the candles, wax melts and fidget sniffers to help him determine the appropriate inventory of fragrances.

“That’s helping a lot because I can actually see how much they have sold and I can plan for the candles we will need,” Darren explained.

“I can track the schools that are using the app and they have more dollars sold per student than the schools that are not using the app,” he said. “So, that leads me to believe the app is helping the schools be more profitable.”

Darren is also working to reduce the impact of supply issues on the business.

“I thought the supply issues were remnants of COVID, but now I think it is just the seasonality of candle making, which results in short supplies in November because lots of people are ordering candle-making supplies,” he said. “So, I’m trying to better budget the supplies.”

Farm Bureau

Stephen is preparing his retiring address as the chairman of the Illinois Farm Bureau State Young Leader Committee, that he will deliver during the IFB annual meeting Dec. 6-9 in Chicago.

“I will be retiring from being the chair of the committee, but I have one more year to serve on the committee,” he said. “I’m glad I have another year on the committee to have more opportunities to make things happen.”

The Young Leader chairman is excited about Collegiate Farm Bureau that has 12 chapters in the state and 500 members.

“Of those 500 members, 140 are registered to be at the annual meeting,” he noted.

“The Young Leader conference was the same thing — we had about 450 people attend and 100 of them were collegiate members,” he said. “So, that program is doing really well and I like to see the pipeline of kids going from being a FFA member to our collegiate Farm Bureau and then Young Leaders and continue with the lifetime opportunities of being a Farm Bureau member.”