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NW IL producer:  Mild winter good for cows; a concern for crops

A northwest Illinois cow-calf producer says the mild winter was great for calving season.

Lou Lamoreux, who farms with his family in Carrol County, tells Brownfield…

“Usually, you’re fighting mud and snow and blizzard conditions in February and March.”  He says, “We had one little spell where it was 10 or 15 below with the wind for just a few days, then it kind of passed by and it’s been really a very mild winter.”

However, he says there are some concerns heading into planting…

“It’s been dry this spring.”  He says, “When you talk to some of the local plumbers that do some digging, they said it’s dry down four or five feet, so we need to regenerate some moisture for our subsoil.”

Lamoreux says they’ve taken advantage of the good conditions thus far…

“Had to reseed some hay.”  He says, “We always have some hay. We got the alfalfa seeded a couple days ago. Right after we seeded it; we got about six tenths of an inch of rain.”

Lamoreux says they saw better than expected yields in 2023, and credits that success to timely rains.  He anticipates similar conditions this year.