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Illinois corn crop varies throughout the state

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The Illinois corn crop continues to look really good in some areas – and really poor in others.

Mike Toohill, Illinois-based agronomist for Diversified Services says excessive rainfall continues to deteriorate the crop.  “Really there is a lot of water damage along I-55,” he says.  “Some of the worst corn in the state is south and east of the I-55 corridor in Kankakee and Iroquois counties.  There’s too much water damage.  A lot of short yellow corn with corn tasseling as small as 1 foot tall.  The crop gets a little better in northwest Illinois – they missed some of those big rains – so probably some of the better yields in the state are going to come from there.”

Toohill says the much of the crop is suffering from too much water and not enough nitrogen.  “Most of the dryland farmers quit putting on nitrogen when the corn tasseled,” he says.  “When we apply nitrogen we have to get some rain to make it work.  Whether we’re using ground equipment with Y-drop or applying some urea out of the plane and at this point there’s no guarantee to ge the rain needed to get the nitrogen where it is needed to go.”

He says growers that have irrigation capabilities however, will likely still apply some nitrogen to their crop.

For growers in the hardest hit areas of the state – Toohill says their options are limited.  “Really there’s not much to do on the corn side,” he says.  “The dollars are spent and it’s getting really depressing watching the market continue to slide when your crop isn’t improving much.”

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