Illinois
Mild winter is concerning for Illinois farmer – Brownfield Ag News
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Mild winter is concerning for Illinois farmer
A west-central Illinois farmer says the mild winter is one of his biggest concerns heading into the 2024 planting season.
Al Johnston says when temperatures got really cold, there was still plenty of snow cover on the ground. “A lot of our ground has not really frozen and hasn’t had frost move very deep,” he says. “So we probably haven’t hurt the insect populations much just with the kind of winter we’ve had.”
And, he tells Brownfield, low prices are always a concern. “We’re watching our expenses,” he says. “But I don’t think production-wise, we’re going to change much of what we normally do. We try to be even in good years, try to be pretty efficient with our inputs, and we pretty much spoon-feed crops all through the season just to try to make sure they have everything they need.”
Johnston raises corn and soybeans in Henry and Knox counties.