Weather conditions could trigger increased disease pressure

AgriNews will follow the Rahn family throughout the entire year. Each month, look for updates about the farmers and the decisions they make on their farm.

MOUNT CARROLL, Ill. — Wet and hot conditions in northern Illinois are impacting crop growth, as well as providing an opportunity for increased disease pressure this year.

“We’ve got some stress issues from compaction by the machinery tracks,” said Elmer Rahn, who farms with his wife, Annette, and their sons, Correy and Mitchel, and their families.

“We started planting on April 23 and now we’re 160 heat units ahead of normal and you can see that with pollination,” said Kellie Rahn, a Pioneer sales representative and Correy’s wife. “We had tassels on July 4 so we’re a week to 10 days ahead.”

“We’ve had five to seven inches of rain and things look good,” Correy said. “The last three weeks have been wet, but we missed the big rains that went north of us.”

Prior to the first cutting of alfalfa, the fields had some alfalfa weevil pressure.

“We decided to cut it and then we sprayed for leafhoppers and aphids,” Kellie said. “That was the first time I saw alfalfa weevils in my career.”

“Japanese beetles have started to make their presence known in soybeans and the Western rootworm beetles are present in the corn,” Correy said.

“For our farm and my customers, I’ll put out rootworm traps to see what the levels are and make recommendations for insecticides,” Kellie said. “I’ll put the traps in 10 to 12 fields and our kids will help with that.”

“Kellie has been doing the traps for about 10 years so that gives us a pretty good benchmark and then we’ll add insecticides if we need to when I spray the fungicides,” Correy said.

For diseases, Kellie has started to see common rust and a little bit of gray leaf spot in the cornfields.

“With the corn staying wet for extended periods of time during the day, we’re probably set up for a high disease pressure year,” she said. “But I have not seen tar spot yet.”

Elmer started harvesting wheat on July 10.

“Our wheat is standing good, it’s a little short, but it is 120-bushel wheat,” he said.

It’s too late to plant soybeans on that field, Elmer said, but it will provide a place to apply some manure to fertilize next year’s corn crop.

Correy also has a field of wheat ready for harvest.

“I am going to do some field improvements by putting some tile in and doing some waterway work,” he said. “Then I’ll apply some manure and spin on a cover crop.”

The weather conditions this year are also impacting the Rahn’s cow-calf herd.

“This is a big year for pink eye,” Elmer said. “With the heat, we’ve got tall grass and that tall grass irritates their eyes.”

The Rahns are proactive and vaccinate their herd for pink eye.

“But there are different strains,” Annette said. “Once we treat them, it takes care of the pink eye, but it’s been something we’ve had to keep ahead of this year.”

For the past several weeks, Mitchel and Annette have been selling packages of hamburgers, ribeyes and New York strip steaks at the Mount Carroll Farmers Market from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

“It’s a very nice farmers market and it is run very well,” Mitchel said. “About half the vendors are selling food and the other half craft items.”

The farmers market had been a good way to market Rahn Meats products.

“The week before July 4, I had to go back to the chest freezer three times because we kept selling out,” Mitchel said. “We sell on average about a quarter of beef in weight each week of hamburger and steaks and now people are starting to request items like oxtail and liver.”

Sweet corn harvest has begun at the farm by Correy and Kellie’s kids — Austin, Emilie, Adalynn and Anthony.

“The kids pick corn the first thing in the morning and stock the roadside stand where they sell the corn on the honor system,” Correy said. “We have an acre of sweet corn that has four plantings.”

The stand is on Route 64, near the turnoff for the Timber Lake Campground and Lake Carroll.

“It’s in the gate hole of a field and this is the fourth year we’ve sold there,” Kellie said.

Some of the sweet corn will be processed by the family members during their annual event usually before the Carroll County Fair.

“We take a half day to can corn,” Mitchel said. “It’s a tradition our family has done for 60 years or more and we do close to 1,000 ears.”

The family sets up an assembly line for the process and each person has a specific job.

“My mother helps cut the corn, Mitchel cooks it, Correy and his kids husk it, Kellie, Samantha and I bag it,” Annette said. “We’re so intense, we don’t even talk a lot.”

“Dad’s mom was the cleaner and she was a stickler that every piece of silk had to come off the ear,” Mitchel said. “We miss Grandma Rahn.”

The kids are also working to prepare their projects for the upcoming Carroll County 4-H Fair. Austin will be showing a yearling bred heifer and Emilie will exhibit a bucket calf.

“4-H for our family is the kids’ project,” Correy said. “We help them, guide them and provide leadership, but they’re going to do the doing and there’s going to be tears of sadness and tears of joy, but that’s all in the learning.”

In addition to the beef project Austin is doing metal arts, woodworking, soybean production and weather projects. Emilie’s additional projects include cooking, horticulture, visual arts and woodworking.

Adalynn is a 4-H Cloverbud and will complete a poster for the fair about either her gardening or sweet corn project.

This summer, Correy said, Emilie has been helping more with chores.

“She is learning to feed cattle and fill the feed wagon,” he said. “She gets bored if she’s just riding; she wants to do it.”

In addition to learning in the shop, Austin has been helping with hauling bales, driving the grain cart during wheat harvest, raking hay, feeding cattle and scraping the cattle yards.

“Adalynn and Anthony are great window washers,” Correy said. “If I lose sight of them, I don’t have to look far because they are either climbing in a tree or having a water fight with the hose.”

“The kids just got done helping me put up all our field signs,” Kellie said. “I have two bean plots and four corn plots so they’re always happy when that’s done.”