Levee Break is a Big Problem.

Len Small Levee District is at the southern tip of Illinois along the Mississippi River.  I am sure the Corps of Engineers has a reason for not fixing it, but it is surprising that Congress has not overridden them with an appropriation.  If the levee is allowed to continue to be open, there is a good chance that the Mississippi River will cut a new channel taking out roads, highways, and farm land.  It will be like trying to put the genie back in the bottle if it decides on a new route.  This is an outrageous decision on the part of the Corps of Engineers.

This spring's flood is creating problems for many because of the open break.  One farmer is selling out to get away while he can.  Read more here .  I wrote on the same subject in 2016 and included a picture of our group standing on the sand washed out of the break. 

Rainfall and Drought

There has been a lot of concern about drought in Illinois this winter.  Last week, spring showers started early.  I did a soil boring on Friday and subsoil moisture was good to three feet.  We have had a least another inch since then and more is on the way.  For now, it looks like the drought threat is averted.  As always, we will need rain during the growing season to have good yields. 

NOAA Rain - last 7 days.  

Good Soybean Crop in Mato Grosso

By Eduardo Paim:

Here in Mato Grosso the soybean harvest is going well, the weather forecast said that in February we would have many rains and that would damage the harvest and the quality of the soybean. So far we have not had excessive rains and few producers in the north have lost with the rains that persisted for some days. I believe that Brazil will have a good soybean crop, without reducing its productivity.

Second-crop maize is beginning to be planted and rainfall forecasts indicate that it will be a good crop.

Brazil's soybean productivity is expected to ease Argentina's fall, so South America is going to be average productivity!

Brazillian Soybean Harvest

January 26, 2018
By Eduardo Paim:

Here in Mato Grosso we started the soybean harvest, as we are in a year of La Niña in the north of the state we are seeing farm with averages below 50 sacks of soy by HA and in other farms with averages above 70 sacks per HA. The soy that is being harvested is very beautiful! On average there is a good production, and if nothing else disturb I believe that logos averages will rise, we had good rains in the crops between December 2018 and January 2018. There is forecast of much rain in the North for the beginning of February and this worries a little, if we escape these rains we will have a good harvest of grains. In Argentina and South of Brazil we are seeing the weather spoil the crops more, we still have to see what happens there. If the rest of Brazil produce well, that is what we expect we will have a small break in the average of South America.

There were talks of decrease of maize area second crop because the rains were slow to arrive and delayed the planting of soybeans of the first crop. With whom I say they are going to keep the same corn planted area from the year 2017 for the second harvest, if everything goes well with rains we will have lots of corn!