Drought. The word that’s been keeping area farmers up at night pondering the weather and praying for rain to help their corn and bean crops at a critical time in their development.
Average precipitation for the state since April 1 is 8 to 10 inches below normal, the second lowest in over 70 years, compared to the record set in 1988, according to the Illinois State Water Survey. The moisture deficit, combined with low temperatures and humidity, even the smoke from Canadian wildfires in recent weeks, which shades crops from the sun, has put unusual stress on crops, especially corn, which in some fields in the Tri-County area are only 4 to 5 feet high, while in others, it’s 6 feet tall.
We found one of those fields when we ventured out to measure the stalks with this year’s “Knee High by the Fourth of July Girl,” Brooklyn Schiltz, of rural Kewanee. She took us to one of her grandfathers, Ron Schiltz’ fields on the east edge of Kewanee on June 27. The field was planted April 28. The tape measured one of the plants as 6 feet 1 inch tall from the tip of a leaf to the roots at the ground alongside Brooklyn at 5 feet 7 inches tall.
This year’s corn crop compares to 5 feet 4 inches measured last year by Rachel DeRycke in one of her father’s fields north of Annawan planted April 21, 2022. The tallest in the more than 40 years that “Knee High” girls have been measuring corn fields was 9 feet 3 inches in 2007 measured by cousins Natalie and Rachel Fargher on Natalie’s father Mark’s farm on Midland Road. The shortest was 36 inches measured by Allison Pratt, of Neponset, in 1990 when the Fourth of July followed an extremely wet spring when planting was delayed for weeks by rain.
In 2016, Madisen Winter measured the same field checked by Brooklyn down the road a few rods at 8 feet 3 inches. Schiltz said this year the field was planted with Nutech 70F2Q, which takes 110 days to mature. The field was also planted in corn last year.
Schiltz said this year reminds him of 1988 when average precipitation dropped to 13 inches below normal over the summer. There were higher temperatures in the 1930s, and 1950s, but in those years they went longer without rain. Still, Schiltz said “It’s amazing that the corn is growing and green as well as it is.”
Corn planted earlier this year has been able to reach moisture deeper in the soil with its roots and, in most cases is taller, but climatologists are worried that if we don’t get substantial moisture before the crucial pollination stage in early July when the corn tassels out, this fall’s yields will be lower.
“Some people think they know, but I think right now it’s hard to determine what kind of crop we will have,” Schiltz said. “There are too many variables to say how it will turn out.”
Meanwhile, Brooklyn is spending the summer as a lifeguard at The Oasis Aquatic Center in Northeast Park and pursuing her passion for art by preparing for the Prairie Chicken Chalk Art Festival in July where she has won a number of first place awards over the past few years for her works including chalk-on-the-sidewalk renditions of “Popeye,” “The Little Mermaid,” and “Aladdin.”
This fall the 15-year-old daughter of Ben and Amelia Schiltz will be a sophomore at Kewanee High School where she is a member of the FFA and enrolled in Ag Science and Horticulture classes in her second year in the agriculture program. Her SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) her freshman year was Ryan’s Round Barn, an agricultural innovation built in 1910 north of Kewanee by Dr. Laurence Ryan for his prize herd of Black Angus cattle, now on the National Registry of Historic Places.
She also served as sentinel in the Conduct of Chapter Meetings Leadership Development Event (LDE) which introduces members parliamentary procedure, how to conduct efficient meetings and develop good communication skills.
She has also been active in many chapter activities including planting trees at Baker Park, and helping with the Rotary Appreciation Breakfast and with an ag teacher development workshop held at Kewanee High School.
She lives on a farm east of Kewanee with her parents and brothers Brady,16, and Bennett, 4, and sister Evelyn, 12. They raise sheep and chickens and sell farm fresh, free range eggs to Charlie and Diane DeMay at The Prairie Chicken Haus.
Asked what she likes about raising chickens and sheep, Brooklyn thought for a moment, then said, “You don’t have to tell them what to do. Just take care of them and they’ll take care of you.”
