CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, Ill. (WCIA) — Rain has returned to Central Illinois right as harvest season has begun. After a dry start, the rain is affecting the work of farmers.

The crops have looked relatively dry lately, but the ground was able to soak up some water on Thursday. Rick Wolken farms out by Thomasboro, and said he is not too worried about the rain.
His farm got 1.5 inches of rainfall, which is helping his soybeans that he’s already starting to harvest.

“It will even out the crops. It won’t make the crops better because we’re past that point,” Wolken said. “But some of the beans are too dry, and so that evens some out, knocks the leaves off and it makes harvest a lot better. This is a well-welcomed rain.”

So far, Wolken has harvested about 160 acres of his fields. He said about two to five percent of corn has been harvested in the area, and that a big help is the advances in genetic engineering. The quality of corn and beans have improved a lot over the years, making the new hybrids more weather resistant.

Wolken said that even though the drought was the worst he had ever seen, he expects the harvest season to be a lot like years past as far as the timeline is concerned. He added the crops aren’t the best he’s ever seen, but it will still be a good harvest.