Northern Illinois farmers are expected to become more active in the coming weeks for the fall harvest. Within the past few weeks, a new corn disease popped up in Indiana and now several counties in northern Illinois. It’s called “tar spot,” and appears as small, bumpy spots on the leaves of the corn.
Russel Higgins is with the Northern Illinois Agronomy Research Center in Shabbona. He says it isn’t expected to have a negative effect on the crops this late in the growing season.
“It’s caused by two organisms. One causes less damage then the other and all of the samples have been attributed to that so far.”
He isn’t expecting crops as good as last year in this part of the state, but still very good yields.
“I think by the first week of October, I think you will see more farmers becoming active. After that, they’ll be going pretty full swing.”
