Rider Jackson farms with his dad, Fred, in Buchanan County. He grows primarily corn and soybeans, as well as some wheat and putting up hay. He studied agriculture at Northwest Missouri State University. Jackson participated in the Missouri Corn Growers Association’s CornRoots program, which is a leadership academy for young farmers.

Over the past two weeks, planting progress has been slowed by frequent rainfall, with systems moving through every three to four days. Last Friday, our area was under a tornado warning, bringing marble-sized hail along with nearly an inch of rain. Conditions have finally allowed us to return to the field, and we are now back to planting corn, pushing to make as much progress as possible ahead of the next rain event expected in about five days.

We were able to finish planting both corn and soybeans this week just ahead of another round of rain that brought about 0.5 inches. Field conditions have continued to be challenging for farmers in the area with frequent rains slowing progress, but we were thankful to get everything wrapped up before this latest system moved through. We have some fields of corn and soybeans out of the ground and looking like they are off to a great start!

Weather challenges returned this last week. A hard, fast-moving storm Sunday brought around 2-3 inches of rain in a short period, leading to some big washouts and saturated soils. In addition, a frost on Thursday caused damaged in some soybean fields, with certain areas needing to be evaluated for replant. Despite the setbacks, corn stands are generally looking good, and we’ll continue assessing soybean conditions as the crop progresses.

We received another round of light rain this week. The corn pretty much all emerged and is looking healthy overall and progressing well with the warmer temperatures. The later-planted soybeans are starting to come up, and some earlier-planted beans that took a hit from last week’s frost and heavy rain events are starting to come back. Overall, the crops are off to a decent start despite our difficult planting season.

Most of the corn is now in the V4-V5 growth stage and is looking healthy overall, with the recent warm temperatures really helping crop progress. The early-planted soybeans look great. We had a few areas that had to be replanted due to frost or water damage, but everything is in the ground and the fieldwork is completed!

Both the corn and soybeans have emerged and are off to a pretty good start so far. We received over 3 inches of rain this week, which has kept things wet across the area. The crop could definitely use some warmer temperatures and sunshine this coming week to help spur growth and let fields dry out a bit. Overall, we’re thankful to have everything up and growing.

We’ve received another 2 inches of rain this week, followed by some sunshine and heat. This was a really great growing week in northwest Missouri. Our corn is mostly around the V6 growth stage. Soybeans are starting to grow outwards more and bush out. Everything is looking better.

The last week we have received anywhere from 2 to 5 inches of rain. There has been some flooding in the bottom ground, and the hill ground has its wet spots with water standing as well. Our corn ground is super clean, and it’s canopied. The soybeans have quite a bit of weed pressure coming in. We’ve been spraying in the small windows we get a chance to.