Weather

A reported tornado damaged a semi-trailer on Interstate 72 in central Illinois as a line of storms rumbled across parts of the state.

With the rains last weekend, the progress on soybean harvest this week was much slower. We switched the combine back to corn and knocked out a custom high-moisture corn job for my relatives that farm next to us.

Hello from Graze-N-Grow. For all those in the non-farm public, many casual conversations start with sports, but many of us in the farming community will usually start with a rain update, at least during the growing season, and then it turns to snow and cold topics.

Well, it’s definitely fall. With the changing weather patterns, it’s making it hard to combine beans because we get a rain just about the time they dry out. But the rain is helping the cover crops grow in a different field, almost too much.

For many in our country, this past summer was a time of care-free days, fun activities with the family and often some good food. Even our farmers have tried to unwind a little from time to time, though most were busier than ever doing what it takes to grow food for the other 98% of the country not fortunate enough to be farmers.

With harvest in full swing, I play herdsman, provide cheap labor and check the bred cows as Carson remains occupied with grain. As a road gawker, I report that many fields of corn in our area are suffering stalk breakage and farmers are rushing to complete their harvest.

Our once lush and green pastures are all of a sudden pretty desert-like as we are experiencing some drought-like conditions that our western cattlemen have been plagued with all summer. Fortunately for us, we have, or very soon will have, lots of crop residue to utilize as feed for the fall.

The U.S. government released projections that indicate an even more troubling outlook for a river that serves 40 million people in the American West.

Lightning hit a tree at a Maine beef farm, electrocuting eight cattle that had gathered under it for shelter from the rain.

Fall is here. It was a chilly first day of autumn, but the cooler temperatures were short-lived. One day with a sweatshirt and right back to short-sleeve T-shirts again. Today was back in the 80s, sunny and breezy. It was a great day to combine corn.