Pam Smith, Farm Journal Seeds & Production Editor

 

A road trip through southern Illinois and southeast Missouri over the weekend found a large diversity of crop. I saw the first corn tasseling in the Illinois Bottoms near Prairie du Rocher. Still, nearby were fields yet to be planted.

Wheat harvest was well underway throughout this region. Charlie Hinkebein was using floater tires to get his out near Chaffee, Missouri. Seep water was coming up from underneath, but the wheat was dry as a bone. Test weight was a little lighter than what he would have liked. Farmers in this area were also complaining about the long lines at the terminals--not so much because of people dumping, but because of the number of tests being run on the wheat for vomotoxin. How to double crop wheat into such wet fields was weighing on farmer's minds.



Corn that was planted early in Southeast Missouri was close to tassel, but there would also be corn an inch tall in the field next to it.