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Southeastern Illinois farmer in a growing season sweet spot

As drought plagues many Midwestern fields, a southeastern Illinois farmer is nestled in a sweet spot for crop conditions.

Doug Winter of Mill Shoals tells Brownfield they’ve had perfect greenhouse conditions this month, receiving up to an inch of rain each week.

“Some of the fields we have been scouting look like they have recovered from the late planting, and that dry stretch in June doesn’t seem to have had much of an adverse effect on them. We have been in nearly perfect conditions since then, so things are really looking good around our part of the world.”

He says that paints a positive outlook for his 3200 acres of corn and soybeans.

“We are probably headed for at least a bit above average yields this year, providing our weather patterns keep holding out anyplace close to where they have been.”

Winter says he is seeing some grey leaf spot on corn as well as bean leaf beetles and stink bugs in soybeans, but nothing out of the ordinary. He is applying fungicide and insecticide accordingly.

Winter serves as Board Chairman for the US Soybean Export Council.