Joe Stuckel and his wife Amber, along with their six young children, farm near Buckley in Iroquois County. They are first generation farmers, growing corn and soybeans. They also raise cattle marketed as freezer beef. In addition to farming, Stuckel has a seed business and does some custom seeding of cover crops. They have utilized cover crops and strip-till/no-till since they began farming seven years ago.

Not much activity this week as 1 to 2 inches of rain fell on Monday. Some field work and planting resumed Friday and Saturday. Corn and beans that were planted in the second week of April have emerged with good stands. Some emerged corn looks pale but should recover nicely if we get some sun and warmth.

Slow but steady progress this week with several interruptions for light rains. Emerged crops still look pale with the cool and sometimes cloudy conditions. Terminating cover crops has been a challenge due to cool temperatures. Lord willing, we will finish planting early this coming week.

Finally got some warm weather to finish up planting. We finished up midweek, and I would say most others in our immediate area are finished as well. We are evaluating frost damage on soybeans from May 7 and finding some thin stands in small areas. Windy conditions continue to make opportunities to spray hard to find.

Four-tenths of rain at the beginning of the week slowed down field work, but planting is complete for the most part. Sidedress nitrogen is picking back up at the end of the week. We did have to spot in a few acres of early-planted beans from the frost event on May 7. Overall crops are developing nicely and benefiting from the warmer temperatures. Happy Memorial Day to all! We are very blessed to enjoy many freedoms in this country.

We've had warmer and sunny weather this week, and the corn and beans are making the most of it. The corn is maybe a little smaller than this time last year, but stands are very good. Almost all fields in the area are emerged at this point. Conditions have been great for herbicide spraying and applying nitrogen. The children are out of school for the summer. We are very thankful for a good start to the season.

Another dry week with good growing conditions. We finished post spraying corn and side dressing. We started post spraying some beans. We received 1.7 inches of very welcome rain from two separate storms that came through on Saturday. It all soaked in nicely. Just a few miles south they only got a tenth. Starting to notice a few corn fields with uneven growth, but the vast majority look excellent.