The heavy rain last weekend in Central Illinois has been a great benefit to farmers across the area.

CIProud reports that one Central Illinois farmer said, “We went through a 50-day period with virtually no rain at all. We caught some early July rains, it was starting to get dry again and we haven’t really broken the drought yet, so this last weekend’s rain was amazing.”

Patrick Kirchhofer (Peoria County Farm Bureau Manager) said that at the end of June the corn was showing stress with curling leaves. The rain obviously helped relieve that stress.

Time will tell how much, if any, yield reduction has been caused by the recent month and a half drought. Harvest will likely begin early in September.

By: Buck Stevens