Farmers discuss the growing season, how recent rains ended the drought in DeKalb County

Jeff Clausen has been farming in Genoa and north of Sycamore for more than 30 years, and he said that this year has been “pretty good, almost normal” for farming.

“Compared to other years, it’s been relatively normal, except for the dryness,” Clausen said. “We were all very concerned about the crops for a while there when it didn’t rain. But now I think we’ll be OK. The crops’ condition is improving and it got its color back. Growing is about where it should be for this time of year.”

According to the National Weather Service’s U.S. Drought Monitor released on June 17, northern DeKalb County had extreme and severe drought, middle DeKalb County had a moderate drought, and southern DeKalb County was abnormally dry.

“Persistent dry weather across northern Illinois since February has led to exceptionally dry conditions and worsening drought,” the NWS previously stated in a June 17 drought statement. “Record warmth over the first half of June accelerated this process given the dryness.”

The severe storms and heavy rains that occurred Sunday and rain coming this week have helped ease the drought locally.

Before Sunday night’s rain, Sycamore farmer Dan Hartmann said his crops resembled dry pineapple crowns more than corn stalks. He described the 1.5-inch rainfall on Sunday as “a million dollar, crop-saving rain.”

“The drought was really starting to show,” he said. “I have an app that tracks the five-year rainfall average, and we had received 40% of the rain of a normal year. Isolated rain kept missing us. The rain was very much needed.”

Normally, low points of fields pond water after a heavy rainfall.

“Without any rain, our fields soaked up every bit of rain,” Hartmann said, referring to Sunday’s weather. “Now what we need is some warm weather and sporadic rain to make for a really good crop.”

The lack of rain was actually beneficial for many farmers as they planted their crop in the spring. Hartmann said that this “was probably the first time” he didn’t have a rain delay when planting this spring. Hartmann planted April 17 through May 2.

Because the soil was dry, Hartmann said he planted seeds half an inch deeper, 2.5 inches instead of 2 inches, so seeds could better find moisture to germinate.

“It was actually really nice to get everything planted in a timely fashion this spring,” Clausen said.

Chris Paulsen, who farms in Clare and Kirkland, said that planting this spring “was phenomenal because we were able to get in the fields early and the soil was dry.”

“Too much moisture while planting has been a problem the last few years, and without the rain, we probably did our planting in record time this year,” he said. “We started mid-April and finished by the end of April.”

Paulsen credits the local soil for his crops’ continued health.

“Soil in DeKalb County has a lot of clay in it, so it holds in moisture better,” he said. “I know out west they’re having a horrible time with the drought because of their drier soil.”

Now that their fields are planted, farmers are keeping an eye on their crops’ growing process.

“Right now, we’re scouting our crops to watch for disease, checking the stages of growth and making sure our crop is taken care of,” Paulsen said. “Now we pray a little and wait for harvest.”

If farmers haven’t sprayed their crops with herbicide, fungicide, nitrogen or fertilizer, they will be doing those tasks soon. In July, farmers will harvest their wheat crop. Harvesting corn and soybean crops typically begins at the end of September or the beginning of October.

“It’s too early to tell when harvest will be, possibly October,” Clausen said. “We just hope the drought is over, we’ll receive timely rain and have a good crop this year.”

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