matt.quattlander's blog

The 2012 soybean crop in southern Illinois and Missouri surprised a lot of growers this fall when their combines got into the fields.  After the extreme drought and heat that hit most of the Midwest this past summer, growers experienced low and disappointing corn yields.  With lowered expectations from the corn yields, bean yields appeared to exceed expectations.  August rains that passed through much of the region were the saving grace for the bean crop.  Seed size can be attributed to gain in soybean yields from the late rainfall.  Most plants were past the sta

The 2012 harvest season has finally come to an end.  Most farmers in Southern IL and Missouri would tell you they are glad to close this one out.  Planting season started off very well with early seeding, due to warm dry weather.  The only problem was the dry weather stayed and the warm weather turned to hot throughout much of the summer.  Outside of a few small pop up showers, most farmers saw their corn yields deteriorating in the early parts of June.  Differences in soil properties and types stood out this past summer, the dark prairie soils and low bottom gro

Corn harvest is in full swing and even complete in much of Southern IL and Missouri.  I think most knew that yields were going to be down before harvest started, but most discovered lower than expected yields once the combines hit the field.  Estimating the final yield for the U.S., State, or even county is going to be a challenge because of the extreme variation.  We’ve seen combine monitors in one pass through the field hit 0-200+ bushels per acre this year.  A good portion of the area has been between 50-100 bushels per acre.  Problems that we’ve b

Today’s date is August 10^th, and I can say harvest season has begun.  With the record summer heat and lack of rainfall, early planted corn has rapidly moved through grain fill, along with a swift drydown process.  Yield reports have been all over the board, with a range of 0-140 bushels per acre.  There are higher yielding fields scattered around the territory.  These fields are greener and still working on grain fill, due to some rainfall received that others didn’t get.   At this point in time, a very small percent has been harvested

As we sit here on July 16, 2012, a lot of farmers in Southern IL and Missouri already know what their yields will be.  A high percentage of farmers most likely will have an insurance claim due to the heat and drought that has killed off the corn crop prematurely.  Some small areas are still holding on with hope of having some decent yields.  As the past couple of month’s have went by, there has been virtually zero rain making weather patterns come through.  A pop up shower is the only rain some have seen, and these storms have been far and few between.  Yie

Reports of spider mite infestations are beginning to pop up across many areas.  It’s beginning to look like a similar scenario as to what took place in 1988, where a wide scale infestation broke out and a large amount of acres were treated with an insecticide.  Spider mites typically become a problem in the later part of July and August.  With an extremely, hot and dry June, they have appeared earlier than normal.  If dry and hot conditions continue to persist, fields will need to be monitored for damage.  Thresholds for spider mites are different than most