2021 Spring Farm

Page 32 2021 Logan County Farm Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March 18, 2021 ground to warm up and shed excess moisture. Seeds planted had very poor germination. May 2020 continued with the same pattern as April: cool temperatures. The weather finally turned the corner around May 22, with warmer temperatures and the rainfall track finally shifting to the north. Overall, May came in two degrees below normal, and one inch above normal rainfall because conditions changed so much after the 22nd of the month. The faucet finally shut off, and when it shut off, it stayed off. Logan County went from flash-flood to “flash drought.” The southern and eastern parts of the county stayed extremely dry. June brought one-half the normal rainfall in Lincoln. During July Logan County only had about four days when fields got spotty rains. The areas that were dry stayed dry. August was dry for everybody, with long stretches with only a few hundredths of an inch in rainfall that seemed more like mist. Even though the season started very late and had erratic rainfall, many farmers reported that the deep soil moisture along with the warm weather produced great yields in Logan County for 2020. Everything weather wise seemed to come with perfect timing, with late season dryness perfect for drying the crops in the fields. Miller explained that the local climate is like an engine. Whatever fuels the engine, the engine puts out more of the same. So, if the engine receives a lot of local moisture, the result will be more local rainfall. If the engine receives local drought, the result will be more local drought. Said more simply, rainfall begets rainfall and drought begets drought. While 2021 started out very dry in January, with drought hydrology levels. From Central Illinois to Northeastern Illinois and over into Western Indiana is a band that is still a little below normal rainfall patterns. A wide swath of very dry snow came around February 10th, ending on the 18th with accumulations up to eleven inches, but it was so dry that the moisture content was barely a half-inch. Continue 4