Good crops, tough weeds, hot markets

Welcome to another Outstanding in the Field. I am Doug Gucker, Extension Commercial Ag Educator in East Central Illinois, and it is the third week of July. Crops are looking good here in East Central portion of Illinois with the 2026 planting season having stretched from early April to mid June, the gap in plant development between fields can be large. Currently, area soybeans are looking good with generally good excellent weed control. Soybeans vary from R one beginning bloom to the R four beginning pod stage.

Leaf defoliation by Japanese beetles is evident on the outside rows of some fields. And remember I said outside rows, just on the outside. This year, some of the non GMO soybean fields have struggled with controlling tall water hemp and other amaranth. In the fields where group 14 HPPD herbicides were used for post emergent control, there has been a general lack of acceptable control. The above average rainfall of June caused delayed row cultivation of the soybeans which added to the problem as well.

In talks with Dr. Aaron Hager, Extension weed specialist, Dr. Hager said that with the increasing herbicide resistance to numerous herbicide groups by tall water hemp and other members of the amaranth family, they are recommending the use of metribuzin at the 10 ounce per acre rate either incorporated pre plant with a Treflan or Pursuit type herbicide or at planting over the top and this is for the non GMO type soybeans. Their work over the past several years has shown that this metribuzin rate provides longer control of the amaranths than either Authority or Valor herbicides which have been the back bone of these programs in the past. However, remember, metribuzin must be applied before amaranth emerges in the field.

This is not a rescue. Area cornfields are generally looking good. Corn varies from VT, the the pretasseling stage, to r three, the milk stage. As for leaf diseases, I'm finding some gray leaf spot lesions, but this is primarily in organic cornfields. And even in these fields, I'm seeing good hybrid tolerance or resistance to this disease.

Corn smut is showing up in fields that have suffered hail damage, which is to be expected. Physoderma brown spot can be found in isolated fields that have suffered from stress such as waterlogged soils that we had earlier in the year. The double crop soybeans that were planted no till into wheat stubble in early July are approaching the r three trifoliate stage in less than three weeks. Amazingly quick growth. This week, corn and soybean prices have rallied to two and a half year highs, giving farmers an opportunity to lock in prices at hopefully a profitable level for their farms.

Due to last fall's government shutdown and with the USDA staff reductions, the twenty twenty five county yield averages have been delayed. While the majority of Illinois twenty twenty five county yield averages have been released, there are still a number of Central Illinois counties where these averages have not been determined yet. These averages will be the basis for the upcoming October payments for the twenty twenty five ARC and PLC county level payments. Presently, for Central Illinois counties that have the twenty twenty five estimated county yields, payments look to vary from $0 in Western Illinois to over $40 in the Eastern portions of Central Illinois to even higher levels in Southeastern Illinois. And for soybeans, the pattern is similar with the highest projected payment in Eastern and Southeastern portions of the state.

If you remember, this is where our drought centered and started first last year. As always, stay safe in your farming, and remember, it's profit per acre that keeps you in the farming business, not yield per acre.