Season looking better by the day

DWIGHT – Things are looking up for northern Livingston County farmer Matt Boucher but, like other farmers this season, he had his share of challenges.

“We thought 2019 was a big challenge, which it certainly was, but this year had its own set of challenges with cooler weather and poor emergence,” Boucher told The Central Illinois Farm Network.

The corn on Boucher’s farm is anywhere from waist to knee high all in the same field due to replanting. Some of his April planted corn didn’t come up for a few weeks, resulting in quite a bit of replanting.

“Growers in the area including myself drove every acre with the planter, lifted it up and put the planter down and repeated that across the field to try and do the best job we could.”

Following a spring with very challenging decisions to make, all of Boucher’s corn spraying and side dressing are done and now the focus is on the soybeans as the weed battle continues. Due to recent dryness, the soybeans are a bit shorter and not quite as far along as normal.

“They are coming along and we should be able to do a herbicide application here and start looking to the future for these beans,” Boucher said.

You can find the Boucher Farms pages on social media as a way to bridge the gap between consumers and farmers, to show the public what farmers do.

“It is a two-way street. We on the farm need to learn from the people in the city just as much as those in the city can learn from us as well.”

Boucher also operates a seed and technology business known as Potential Ag where they are trying to close-out the seed season getting returns in. They are also turning their attention toward cover crop season as Potential Ag has forages and pasture areas they plan to drill for customers.

“We are also starting to get cover crop plans for this fall put in place for some growers,” Boucher notes.

More information can be found online at www.potentialag.com or by calling 815-258-1503.