Let it rain. Let it pour. The U.S. Drought Monitor showed 85.5% of Illinois was abnormally dry or in some stage of drought as of Dec. 13, prior to this week’s rains. “It’s not curing the drought, but 2 inches of rain is definitely good,” said Trent Ford, state climatologist with the Illinois State Water Survey. Ford discusses recent weather events and the likelihood of a white Christmas. READ MORE

Recent rains led to some improvement of the state’s wheat crop. The last ranking of wheat conditions for the year pegged the crop at 30% good to excellent, 64% fair and 6% poor to very poor. Although the good to excellent rating is down significantly from the same time last year, the poor to very poor category marks a 4-point improvement compared to Nov. 20 and is the same as last year. Mark Krausz, a wheat grower from Clinton County and president of the Illinois Wheat Association, discusses this year’s crop going into winter with FarmWeek’s Daniel Grant. READ MORE

Shows feature both a 30-minute drive-up-and-park show and a 15-minute drive-thru light show through the farm’s apple orchard. The Goebbert family already has a rich history with their pumpkin farm and other events, and the lights displays are a way to extend their agritourism ventures into the winter season. READ MORE

It’s breeding season for fall calving herds. Make sure it’s a successful and profitable season by focusing on nutrition and environmental factors. The University of Illinois Extension offered tips for caring for fall-calving cows. READ MORE

Heath Cutrell couldn’t keep his eyes off the yield monitor while combining corn. This year, a 394.0485-bushel-per-acre (bpa) figure crossed his screen, and it gathered top honors for the Virginia farmer in the 2022 National Corn Yield Contest. Sponsored annually by the National Corn Growers Association for the past 58 years, the contest produced 27 national winners in nine production classes this year. READ MORE

Local elevators can only move so much grain in a short period of time. So in a fast harvest, sometimes they have to establish early closing hours for a couple of days. That wasn’t a problem this year for the Total Grain Marketing system in central Illinois. “We had trains in place, and to be honest our trains have been very timely this year,” said Kim Holsapple with TGM. “We have a train at one of our facilities every day this time of year. Our goal is to get rid of all our company-owned beans between now and the end