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Illinois farmer seeing crop loss from major rainfall

Multiple rainstorms have a southern Illinois farmer tallying up crop losses.

“In the last three weeks we’ve had around 18 inches of rain that came in 6 different events.”

Josh Harris who farms near Clay City Illinois tells Brownfield the rain has caused severe flooding in their bottom ground with an estimated 20-25% crop loss so far.

On the higher ground, early planted beans look good, but later planted beans are showing signs of stress. Harris says with corn on the other hand, “We’ve been very fortunate. Our corn is pretty well made. It is probably one of the better crops we have ever seen. Water really isn’t hurting it at this point, but if we continue to get heavy rains we are worried about not getting grain fill.”

He says with the potential for more rain loss they are watching their pocketbook closely, but won’t be cutting corners on 2023 inputs even with the high prices.

“We don’t cut fertilizer because if we are cutting corners, we are cutting yield.”

Brownfield interviewed Harris during the Beck’s Hybrids Southern Illinois Field Show in Effingham Thursday.