The summer crop and rainfall report, which features crop condition and rainfall updates from La Salle County farmers, is published regularly during the growing season. The following report covers June 27 to July 3 and is provided with assistance from the La Salle County Farm Bureau.

David Hall, Serena: We caught a couple showers through the week to keep crops hanging on, for a total of 0.6 inches for the reporting week. Area activities included post spraying herbicide on beans, second cutting of hay and starting wheat harvest. Commodity markets are dropping hard with increased rain chances next week. Hope to see everyone at the 4-H and Junior Fair

Ken Beck, Mendota: I hope everyone had a good Fourth of July holiday. Well, we are back to hot and muggy today. The rainfall in my area ranged from 0.2 to 1.5 inches depending on where you were. I received 0.5 inches and the crops are looking good. Dog days of summer are upon us. Some wheat combining is going on but everyone’s waiting for the oats to get ready. Then it will be on to the next problem.

David Myer, Marseilles: Rainfall past week was 0.4 inches even less a couple miles south. Corn needs more rain now but looks fairly good considering lack of rain. Seems to be a crop of water hemp that escaped the post spray pass last month. Soybeans looking good but August rain is most important. The wheat is slow drying down with the little showers nightly and high humidity. Also I have seen some second cutting hay got baled without being rained on.

Bill Gray, Tonica/Lostant: Last week I received 0.6 inches of rain.

Corn fields have grown fast with recent rains and warm weather. Most fields are shoulder to head high by the Fourth of July. Some will be tasseling soon. So far insect pressure in corn has been minimal.

Most soybean fields have been sprayed for weeds and are looking pretty good. A few fields are still needing to be sprayed and will have it done as soon as fields dry and allow sprayers to run. Japanese Beetles have been feeding on some plants next to grassy areas and need to be watched closely as they may need to be controlled.

Some fields of wheat were harvested and it sounds like yields have been pretty good.

We are doing maintenance and cleaning planting equipment to get it put away when we are not mowing grass.

Have a good week and be safe.

Ken Bernard, Grand Ridge: For the week we received 0.9 incheds of rain. It was welcomed because it was getting dry again. The corn is really taking advantage of the hot weather and we are getting just enough rain to keep everything going. I drove by a couple of fields that have started to tassel. The beans are looking OK, they just don’t seem to be growing very fast. The weeds seem to be also growing and are not all dead after being sprayed. Most of the wheat has been combined but the beans for second crop have not been planted yet from what I see. Next items on the calendar are to start spraying fungicide on the corn and beans. Cutting second crop hay also needs to be done but weather is not looking promising for that to happen this week. Stay cool and be safe.

Geoffrey Janssen, Rutland: A very warm and dry week lead to a pleasant surprise for the weekend. I received right at 3.2 inches of rain. I had 0.1 earlier in the week the remainder came Monday afternoon no hail or wind damage to report with this rain. Some ponding of water in certain lower areas but it is going down quickly.

Rainfall (in inches)

David Hall 0.6

Ken Beck 0.5

David Myer 0.4

Bill Gray 0.6

Ken Bernard 0.9

Geoffrey Janssen 3.2