Here in SEIN we were a little later than normal to start planting because of cold soil temps. a dry spring did allow planting to progress at a fast rate. The first time in a long, long time that I was done before Memorial day. yesterday the crops were all up and looking great. But yesterdays and todays 3.6 inches  (and still raining) will cause some large drown out spots.

I'm 50% of my insurable yield sold. Will wait till  at least July 1 before selling more.

Some crop in puts are hard to find and prices are rising fast. My opinion is all the free money is causing the $ to fall and causing big time inflation. You could  list other factors but same outcome. Just in time delivery, when the international community is involved, is going to die a death of a thousand cuts. JMHO

Thanks much cutworm!

Here's the latest weather for your crop.

https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/70329/

Prospects at this extremely early vantage point are looking slightly better in the east and south vs the west and north just based on the weather outlook for the rest of June.

Here is SW IN, my rain gauge measured 1.4 inches of rain the past 48 hours which was almost double the NWS. Amounts have been extremely variable. Some places north and south of here got over 3 inches.

The rains that have fallen have been spread out. There was measurable rain in 20 of the last 48 hours here.

What that has meant is very little run off and all of it soaking in.  As a result, when I went outside yesterday and today to work outside, the ground was pretty saturated and squishy. 

So I went to check the rain guage thinking there must be 2+ inches in it each day because that's about what we need typically to get a squishy, saturated surface. 

Wow! Less than half of that each day. All the rain stayed in the soil with minimal run off. 

Rains like these in the Summer are extremely rare around here. 

Crops were planted early here and off to one of the best starts ever.

              https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/70366/#70439

  By mcfarm - June 3, 2021, 4:10 p.m.            

            hardly retired, farming more acres this year than ever and its been a tester.  After planting early corn cold and wet set in, never a good thing for emergence. Then planting was scattered for 30 days with weather delays but things were looking pretty good until this morning when we did not need another rain. Had a bit of water standing and about 10am out of no where a rain popped up and set here for about 40 minutes and put down one of the hardest rains I have seen ....we now have lots of water standing and no where to go with it. Which is really odd this year with the severe drought all across the northern plains....so dry up there the spring wheat is threatened and corn and bean have no moisture to germinate in places. Stranger yet, usually bone dry Kansas has had record rain fall in May. I would say a lot of the main corn belt needs sun and heat at this point, I have not been anywhere, its just the feeling I get when reading producers. Not much color to the corn yet.

metmike: Thanks mcfarm! We have 3 reports so far.............and they are all from Indiana! mcfarm is just southeast of Indianapolis in the central part of the state.

Here in NW Iowa it has been picture perfect thus  far. We recently drove from just south of the Minnesota border to Council Bluffs and the crops look better than any of the over forty years we’ve made that drive. Every acre planted and totally uniform.

Having said that we are hand to mouth in regards to moisture. Subsoil is dry and continued rains will be needed to keep this crop going.

I just finished some first cutting hay,  probably average quantity due to the very early heat and then it turned cool. Quality however is very good. New hay seedings  are  looking good but again, continued rains will be the key.

Thanks mcfarmer!

Hopefully there will be more rain showing up in the forecast than what there is right now for IA when we get into next week.

Like you said, there is no surplus moisture for the roots to tap into in most places in the northern half of the corn belt.

Wayne in S.Ontario is very pretty dry too.

Here in WC Illinois things are far from perfect. Way too much rain. No planting from May 14 until June 1. Back in the field now. Should finish planting corn tomorrow. Crops are yellow/green from cool and wet. Many are tearing up the drowned out areas and replanting. Far from a disaster, but not a good start. I've been forward selling and hedging like normal. 

Thanks bowyer!

I see that wet spot that you are in on the map below.

It's actually the northern tip anomaly  of a very wet area in the SouthCentral US.

Sorry to hear this. Things should get much better next week though. 

Must be extra frustrating when conditions are going so well for planting across much of the belt and you are way too wet.

It's bad enough when everybody is suffering(misery loves company) but when its just you............it REALLY stinks.

Hi Every body

We have had two rain events this spring totalling almost 2 ",  after planting, with a small cold rain during planting  Some more, some less, around here which is sort of hand to mouth

Crops have average color but not growing as fast as normal We are on average ankle high around here,   depending on when we planted. Most of ours is a bit taller

Our 1st rain was cold and we slowed the planter down. Don't know if that made any difference now the crop is up and can see what crop looks like. We have sprayed every thing, except some touch up for giant rag weed  and of coarse sweet corn is an all summer spray job

[3000 acres sprayed and 5000 left to go] 5000 is sweet corn with multiple passes. We have a high clearance sprayer, which is high enough to go over top of mature sweet corn for bugs and worms. Also spray some bird repellant as an experiment [second yr trial]

We have had the sweet corn irrigation pivots going so we are on the dry side, although the rain a couple days ago has the top soil a bit damp

We got dinged with frost in some places as we can see when side dressing, [before the last rain] and can see some leaves got touched but will just slow the growing down a bit. If not for the frost, the best thing we had was very even emergence. We are normally knee high by July 4. Not going to happen this yr

So a bit on the cool, dry, frost has slowed up our crop development in a nut shell On the plus side the heat put some color into the crop

Have sold zero 2021 as I don't know how much I will grow. Zero crop insurance here

Sold  out of 2020 except for what may be left in the bottom of bin which is always an unknown, even with monitors, weigh wagon etc,

Thanks very much Wayne!

I would like to keep this thread active for comments from our producers as we go along this growing season.

Best start here ever in ECILL ground worked great everything planted by April 25 a few wet spots here and there but not bid enough to have to replant. Survived all the cold without any problems, The few guys that waited until it warmed up and planted corn in May did not get a perfect stand. Great start does not mean great finish but look great at this time.

Thanks PLL!

Outlook is pretty good for your area with real heat northwest of you, along with the dryness issues.

Here in S.Indiana we would like dry weather and heat.

mcfarmer,

Looks like you did not get much very needed rain from this system )-:

How's the crop doing..........and  with everybody else?

Enough to wet the sidewalk. Things have been stalling out recently, the lighter ground is showing stress. Folks that side-dress nitrogen really roll the corn when they are done.

First cutting of hay was very good, excellent quality and good tonnage.

Some water suppliers are starting to advise water conservation. The DNR is draining the lake that borders our property, that will affect our water table.

Whats the latest on our crops and thoughts out there?

Thanks in advance!

Corn and beans look good here in SEIN. Trying to get corn side dressed its getting pretty tall. Need 4-5 more days. By that time beans will need spraying.

Of course after weeks of too wet. we need rain. crops are variable here, from nice looking to pretty tough. 

We got 1/2" of rain on Sunday. Yesterday 25 miles from us they got a toad strangler with rain so hard, had to pull over and stop. We got the edge with 1/2" on 200 acres. The rest of our ground got ziltch, so it looks like scattered showers for us going forward. Best chance is this Fri and then next Fri.

Crops on the whole look decent, but need a good general rain over all, instead of just a small area

Our crops are about 1/3 total acreage filled in the row/canopy still with good color, due to the recent 1/2" rain

Finished side dressing, spraying etc. Still a couple sweet corn plantings and will resume irrigation if this week end if rain is a bust

Nutshell overall for this area

Some crops are suffering for various reasons [maybe no more than 5%]

95% corn and soys look normal for this time of yr. We are still hand to mouth for rain but so far have got rain just when crop stalled out

If we continue to get rain, would expect average crop

Other things that I think are different this yr.

I am not selling until I know what is in the bin, because if we miss the rain then it will not be good. That is not normal selling for me over past yrs. Usually have enough forward sold to cover expenses. Also had a full soil profile other yrs, [so could forward sell] not so this yr.

Also expecting inflation may be a factor a yr from now

Everything costs more and shortages on a number of things we use, make we concerned about inflation

We were lucky and did some large ticket pricing on machinery and inputs before the price increase. Going forward we may not be able to afford large ticket purchases, but used machinery is like used cars, has also increased, so we have an uncertain future in crops, price and shortages which shortages will mean increased price.. Plus we will pay for Green policies, just one more expense

Call me Debbie Downer even with normal crops, other things will be very uncertain

Thanks..........keep it coming.

Tons of rain should be on the way!

Wayne,

Let us know how much rain you get!

Well the rain train came along last night. We had any where from 2.2 to some places 4 inches in 12 hours. our crops were looking great but the floods have annihilated 45% of my corn.

Such are the ups and down of farming

So sorry to hear that cutworm,

Were there high winds and hail? Looks like there was a lot of wind damage reports in your area.

Won’t flattened corn from 60 mph+ winds return close to vertical after recovering at this stage in the growing season?

After being a bit too wet recently here in the southwest corner of the Hoosier state, over a week of hot and dry leaves us greatly appreciating an optimal 2 inch rain, when it hopefully comes in the next week.

An inch would be half as good but also appreciated.

Mike there was some wind and some reports of hail but my damage was from flooding. i'm hearing of reports of 5+6 inch totals over the Salt creek, Little Salt creek and Pipe creek all of which flow into the West fork of the Whitewater River 

The Brookville river gage is down stream of this and also below the Brookville Dam which is a flood control dam. Even with the dam controlling the east fork you can see the river well above action level.

National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service

We got approx .25" of rain. Made the crop look better and the crop is still growing. Green radar means no rain, same as other folks in most parts of the corn belt.. Radar showed small cells of yellow/red so maybe 1/10 coverage of yellow/red on our part of the corn belt. best I can tell watching radar move over us. Our rain comes as a drizzle so it takes an hr of rain to = 1/10" in rain gauge

Corn is knee high which is better than expected. Corn just started to roll for a couple days and then .25" so we will live for another day or so. Lightning every where last night but not a drop of rain. Next chance this Fri. Corn is starting the phase of high moisture needs so it will be what it is. Still have not sold as not sure what to expect for yield. All depends on rain from now till end of August which is a long time with small rain events

Unless we get the inch rain or small rains to total a couple inches both commercial and sweet corn  is in trouble. We don't need an inch a week but more than .25 every week. We have been hand to mouth with big moisture needs coming. 

Forgot to mention

Our lawn says a lot about soil moisture. I missed a week of lawn cutting until we got the .25" of rain. That missed week of lawn cutting means we are falling behind in soil moisture.

4 1/4 " rain here Friday night

Wow Bowyer!

That's an entire months worth of rain. How long did it take to fall?

Surely alot of it was runoff.

Some of you might have seen the large blob of yellow with some red all the way from Flint Mich until it reaches Cleveland, Ohio

That large blob has been over us for at  least 2 hrs. Most would think we got a big rain. Well that yellow and red is just drizzle - about 1/10" an hr.

You can see a narrow band all the way back to chicago, with the larger area from Flint to Cleveland, and us almost smack dab in the middle, of the S.W Ontario part of the system.

Radar says it should drizzle a bit longer, before it passes past us

Really disappointing to see such a large area of yellow and red and so little rain hitting the ground

However, that is what is happening lately around here. Radar shows we should be well watered, from this system but we might get approx 2-3/10" drizzle, if the pass is any indication of  rain events. 

Don't that just rot your socks. Radar shows large system of yellow and red all over and on top of us.

 It just stopped raining. I been checking every 15 minutes as rain is so scarce, this is the largest system we have had. I was hoping for some decent rain total, but did not want to get my hopes  too high. Well it just proved rain is hard to come when it dry, no matter what the radar says.

I was hoping you might get some rain from this system Wayne. It's a bummer that it went south of you )-:

https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/70329/#70330

Our rain came hard during the night, but lasted several hours. I was actually out of town and when I arrived home yesterday afternoon, was surprised by the lack of standing water. I think a lot soaked in

According to the radar in the middle of the nite we should have got at least 2". I was so happy to finally see a system like this one over our farms

It must have started again after I signed off [sleep] last nite but looks like  1/2"

How we could have so much yellow and red, for such a long time, and me under it,  and not get more, is truly amazing but we will take 1/2"

Best rain so far this yr. Hope for another rain and then July.

In our world we usually get rain 1st week of july, so will corn last that long?? Maybe

Not selling as crop could still go either way and July is our hail season