Things are going pretty good here in northern illinois as far as corn growing the fastest in decades. Outside of all the rain we just got, were dealing with some flooding in areas especially those that live near major river systems or low river bottom areas. The past two seasons at least for me corn killed alot of my hunting, having hundreds of acres of standing corn still up after season. There predicting an earlier rut this year if all goes to plan right around the beginning of november this year, so we can pray that the weather cooperates this fall so that the corn can be harvested earlier than usual! I just thought I would see who the corn affected last year or previuous seasons and what you hope will occur for this season?
You Illinoisans and your corn-fed deer. The farmer on the main property I hunt decided to stop planting corn a couple years ago due to all the deer...it was NOT anything weather related. I've also heard he doesn't abide by the kill permit regs. and gut shoots any deer he sees. Anyway, sorry for the rant. I'm trying to get access to some new property where the corn crop is looking pretty good. I've seen some great bucks on that property and it's walking distance from my house. I really haven't hunted cornfields before but it should be a lot of fun. Hope your season goes well!
Won't be as much of a factor as the rotation on my main piece is beans this year. Still, it will be nice that it looks to be cut way earlier than last year. Last year, it was cut on the last day of archery season.
Deer usually rut about the same time each year, within a few days one way or the other. It is determined by the amount of daylight (photoperiodism). You cannot change that.
Rain and heat have ruined a lot of fields around Western IL this year. Last year it kind of helped our place, for late season, as the two big farms that left their corn in all season were on either side of our 35 acres...the deer were everwhere from Dec on. I like standing crops early season just because I enjoy hunting them and how it creates more huntable acreage...but I do prefer them out by end of Oct so the true rut funnels are more effective, and since I hunt predominantly larger timbers - the deer are then forced into the timbers. Not sure our small bean field will be any good this year - they apparently were stunted by lack of Roundup with all the rain, and now the heat...they have been about 6-8" tall for weeks now
Beans Beans everywhere...prices must be up. Even the fields that were beans last year (and had me hoping for corn) are beans again!
It's like that with corn around here. My farmer stuck to his rotation, but there are many that went all in on corn again.
Unfortunately, I can't go by the local harvest trends, since our farmer ALWAYS harvests our corn last. Never fails. There has only been one season in the past 6 or so where the corn was cut before our archery season ended (we're talking ~2nd week of Nov). His rotation is the same as last year as well.
The corn field that my stand sits on was not very good for harvests! The farmer did not take out the corn untill first week of December! That really killed a lot of my hunting.
