Experts have cited “flash drought” conditions being possible around Illinois; meaning rapid onset of drought conditions due to recent lack of rain and high temperatures. This all comes after a solid planting season where the constant news was “we’re way ahead of last year’s pace,” and “way ahead of the five year average pace.”
The Vermilion County Farm Bureau’s Tom Fricke says the key is to simply get through this period, hoping for just enough rain to help along the way. And in the long run, perhaps this will make the crops stronger.
AUDIO: Some of the prevailing theory always was if you had a little dry spell early it forces the plants, especially corn, to drive down deeper roots to seek moisture, and that helps it stand stronger overall. But at the same time you do need moisture there to drive to. And so we do need to get some rain here, probably within the next week or two.
Fricke says, it may have been an “ahead of schedule” planting season overall, but different farmers are still on different schedules.
AUDIO: It’s just a matter of who got in early, who got in late, who had to replant; and moving forward from there.
Fricke also says if it had been a “behind schedule” planting season, we might be experiencing lots of penetration problems for the plants getting above the soil.
AUDIO: And would cause issues there if there’s not enough moisture to make the seed grow; yes, we’d be looking at different types of scenarios. But if we’d had a late season, that means there would have been a lot of moisture in the ground, so it might have turned out the same.
For now, we are heading into the weekend with a forecast of high temperatures in the lows 90s, and very little chance of rain, if any.
