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Ag Matters The return of county fairs?

See story on page 2

A publication of est. 1851

Spring 2021

COMMUNITY

Fairs forge ahead

Shaw Media/ March 2021

| AG MATTERS

Planning well underway for county fests

By Jeannine Otto

AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS

HENRY, Ill. — By the time Tracy Byrd performs at the 100th Marshall-Putnam Fair on July 15, Drew Herridge, the concert director for the Marshall-Putnam Fair Board, will have been waiting close to two years to see this concert. “We started talking to him in August 2019. We originally had him for the 2020 fair. That was canceled. So, I have been holding on since August 2019, trying to get Tracy Byrd to come to Henry, Illinois,” Herridge said. FAIRS MAKING PLANS Across Illinois, fair boards are making plans and hoping that this fair season looks much, much different than the 2020 season. “We’re positive and we’re looking

forward and I think the fair industry in general is looking forward. The fairs I have talked to, everybody seems to be making plans for a fair in 2021,” said Ken Tyrrell, president of the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs. Tyrrell not only serves as the IAAF president, he also is on the Sandwich Fair Association Board. The Sandwich Fair, which starts on the Wednesday after Labor Day, is moving ahead with plans for the 2021 event, Tyrrell said. The 2021 Sandwich Fair is scheduled Sept. 8-12. “We recently voted to move forward. We are starting to send letters out to vendors and people who display at the fair,” Tyrrell said. By the time Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order for the state, which took effect on March 21, 2020, planning was well underway for the 2020 Marshall-Putnam Fair.

“We start planning the month after the fair ends. So, we were planning in August 2019 for the 2020 fair. It’s a yearlong commitment of planning and getting everybody together to get ready for the next fair. So, it started out as normal,” Herridge said. Even when COVID-19 cases started to build and businesses, including restaurants and hotels, started to close, Herridge and the others on the Marshall-Putnam Fair Board kept up their planning processes and tried to stay hopeful. “We started see the restrictions coming and we were a little worried. We thought how could this last all the way to July? At that time, nobody knew what the future would hold,” Herridge said. DECISION TIME Like hundreds of other fairs See FAIRS, Page 3

Tracy Byrd is famous for country music hits “Ten Rounds with Jose Cuervo,” “I’m From the Country,” “Watermelon Crawl,” “Keeper of the Stars,” and “Don’t Take Her, She’s All I Got.” He is scheduled to perform at 7 p.m. July 15 at the 100th Marshall-Putnam Fair in Henry, Illinois.

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across the state, including the Illinois State Fair and the DuQuoin State Fair, the Marshall-Putnam Board faced a difficult decision as the 2020 fair drew closer and restrictions tightened. In addition to the country concert, the Marshall-Putnam Fair also hosts the Lucas Oil America’s Pull, a tractor and truck pull, along with a demolition derby and other events that draw crowds. “We needed to give enough time to our vendors, to fans, to prepare not to come. We have people who come from all over the country for our tractor pull. We wanted to give people advance notice if we weren’t going to have a fair, but we didn’t want to announce, months in advance, that, hey, we’re not even going to try,” Herridge said. In June, the board decided to cancel the fair and put its efforts into getting ready for 2021, the centennial of the founding of the Marshall-Putnam Fair Association and the first official fair. usic Tyrrell said after the Sandwich Fair ” “I’m Association Board made the decision awl,” to cancel, he heard from other fairs ke Her, that met and made the same decision. erform “I was getting calls on a daily basis all-Put- from other fairs. Once it started, it was like dominoes, everybody just folded

CIRCUIT BREAKER For Tyrrell and the Sandwich Fair

Board, getting through 2020 included some belt-tightening. “It takes a tremendous amount of money to run the Sandwich Fair and when you have a year that you don’t generate revenue, any revenue to speak of, it’s tough. We laid some people off. Our office secretary, we basically gave her the year off, and our office manager went to half time working from home. I think that’s probably the case with every fair in the state. They looked around and tried to cut corners and save a little money wherever they could,” Tyrrell said. Tyrrell said he hasn’t heard that any fair in Illinois decided to close permanently. He said he also feels for those in Sandwich and others who depend on the fair for income during fair time. “The sad thing is — and it’s this way in all the towns with a fair — there are people in town who count on the revenue from the Sandwich Fair, all our vendors, our display people, others, like our tent supplier,” Tyrrell said. Tyrrell said he is looking forward to the 2021 Sandwich Fair and has heard from different attractions that they, too, are anticipating getting on the county fair circuit. “I haven’t heard of anyone folding. North American Midway Amusements said they did not work one event all year in 2020. They parked the equipment and started maintaining and they said they are looking forward to this year,” Tyrrell said.

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Herridge and the rest of the Marshall-Putnam board are planning for the 100th anniversary of their fair. “We are working on ways to commemorate that. We are asking for Marshall-Putnam Fair memorabilia, pictures, souvenirs from past fairs, whatever people have from past fairs, to create a museum-type exhibit,” Herridge said. In addition to the country concert, Herridge said the grandstand events include harness racing, the demo derby, the Lucas Oil America’s Pull and a Sunday grandstand event to be announced. “Everything else, our exhibits, our beer tent, our livestock shows, will go on as normal,” Herridge said. The fair runs July 14-18. Tickets for the country concert can be purchased online at the fair’s website, marshallputnamfair.org. More information about the 2021 Marshall-Putnam Fair is available from the website or by calling the fair office at 309-364-2814. Information on the 2021 Sandwich Fair, including exhibitor and vendor information, is available at www.sandwichfair.com, or by calling the fair office at 815-786-2159. However, the fair office does not currently have regular staffed office hours. Jeannine Otto can be reached at 815223-2558, ext. 211, or jotto@shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @ AgNews_Otto.

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AG MATTERS | Shaw Media/ March 2021

FROM PAGE TWO

their tents and went home. Everybody just held their breath and took a year off,” Tyrrell said. With the cancellation of fairs, fair boards throughout the state, along with the various vendors and shows, suffered financially. “It’s been a struggle for everybody. Luckily, the premium reimbursements came through, so the fairs did have some money there and there were some other opportunities out there for some, the Paycheck Protection Program, and every little bit helps,” Tyrrell said. At the Marshall-Putnam Fairgrounds, the struggle was real — but help from friends made a tough year less so. “Whether we have a fair or not, the fair board has expenses. We have a very large fairgrounds. We have utilities. We have the fair for one week and for those other 51 weeks, there are still expenses we’ve got to keep up. We had some sponsors still donate money as they normally would as if there had been a fair. That was amazing. Because we couldn’t have a fair, we weren’t expecting anyone to give any money at all because we couldn’t really advertise for them, but they still were willing to give and it was just so incredible, especially as hard hit as businesses were in 2020,” Herridge said.

Shaw Media/ March 2021

| AG MATTERS

GRAIN BIN SAFETY

Preventing entrapments

Fatalities down; ‘still really high’ By Martha Blum

AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS

URBANA, Ill. — The majority of grain bin entrapments occur in the Midwest. “There have been over 1,100 grain entrapments since the 1960s,” said Salah Issa, assistant professor of agricultural and industrial safety and health at the University of Illinois. “Surprisingly, 28% involved youth under 21 and 20% adults over 60,” said Issa during a presentation at CropFlix, the 2021 Crop Management Conference. “We tend to see this mostly in bins of corn, soybeans and

wheat.” Since the 1960s, Issa said, the fatality rate for grain bin entrapments is 67%. “In the last five years the fatality rate is at 42%, so the efforts we’re doing to educate farmers about the dangers is Issa working, but 42% is still really high,” Issa said. “The cause of death for grain engulfments or entrapments is rarely reSee BIN, Page 5

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ported,” he said. “But for these 33 cases, 64% of them died from asphyxiation.” Researchers conducted several experiments to get a better idea of the impact of grain entrapments and extrications. The first experiment evaluated different grain types, the second experiment analyzed the forces that could injure a person’s spine and the third experiment evaluated the pressure of grain on a person’s body. “We tested sunflower, oats, canola, wheat, soybeans, popcorn and corn at two different moisture contents,” Issa said. “We found that most grains were not significantly different.” “We also did an experiment with a 180-pound mannequin that we pulled out at different angles from 15 to 75 degrees,” he said. “We wanted to get a better sense of how pulling at an angle impacts the total force when pulling out a victim and this becomes important because in a lot of cases you can’t pull someone straight up.” When a person is entrapped in grain there are two different pressures involved. “When the human body is trying to breathe, the chest is expanding and pushing against the grain,” Issa said. “The grain pushing against the surface is active pressure and when you’re pushing against the grain that’s

PREVENTING ENTRAPMENTS Issa noted that 94% of grain entrap-

Proper use of lockout tags can save lives. ments are preventable. “Operator error caused these entrapments,” he said. “The most important way to keep a person safe is use a lock out/tag out.” There are not a lot of reports about harness use, Issa said, but if there is a report is it usually about misuse such as the safety line was too long. “That’s doing nothing to protect you from getting entrapped,” he said. In an entrapment situation, Issa said, the person should try to place his

arms and hands in front of his mouth and chest. “This is critical because in a lot of incidents they are inhaling grain and it also helps to reduce the pressure on your chest,” he said. Martha Blum can be reached at 815-223-2558, ext. 117, or mblum@shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Blum.

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FROM PAGE FOUR

passive pressure.” “It’s not about the grain mass on the body,” he said. “It’s about your chest trying to push the grain mass out is what causes the shortness of breath.” Grain temperature can also be a factor since it can remain 10 degrees cooler in a bin compared to the outside temperature, Issa said. “A person in water at 4 degrees Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit) can survive for 30 to 90 minutes because water is 25 times more conductive than air,” he said. “Grain is seven to eight times more conductive than air, so we expect a person entrapped at 4 degrees Celsius to survive two to three times longer than in water.” In addition, it is not solid grain in a bin. “Grains tend to be 40% to 60% oxygen, so there could be oxygen to survive, but there are a lot more questions that need to be researched,” Issa said. To evaluate the physiological factors of grain entrapments, Issa discussed a study with boa constrictors. The researchers thought the snakes kill people by attacking their chests so the victim can’t breathe. “But when they did the study with mice they realized that’s not the case,” Issa said. “Boa constrictors apply pressure against the body to impact the blood flow and heart rate so the victim dies from a heart attack.”

CORN FUTURES

312 bushels per acre by 2075

FROM

Predicting corn yields in Illinois By Tom C. Doran

AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois corn and soybean yields have trended steadily upward for more than 60 years. The question is, will that trend continue as carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continue to rise along with global temperatures and changing rainfall patterns? Emerson Nafziger, University of Illinois crop sciences professor emeritus, looked at climate change and its impact on Illinois crop yields at U of I Extension’s Crop Management Conference. “We’ve been hearing about climate change for quite while. Some people have been very skeptical about it. Some people still are very skeptical about it, and we’re not going to spend a lot of time trying to convince people that the climate is changing. But the evidence is pretty clear that it is,” Nafziger said.

“As we look forward, I read tales about how our crop yields are going to take a nosedive. And basically if you believe some people, there’s a pretty good chance we’d be out of business producing the crops in Illinois that we produce if the climate changes as expected over the next 50 to 75 years. We’re not going to come to that conclusion.” LOOKING BACK Over the last 40 years, Illinois corn yields have increased overall by 2.2 bushels per acre per year. Northern Illinois yields have increased 2.35 bushels per acre per year on average in 40 years, the central region has seen a 2.36 bushel per acre increase per year and the southern region increase has been 1.96 bushels per acre per year. Soybean yields in Illinois overall have increased 0.58 bushels per acre per year. Northern Illinois increased

by 0.54 bushels per acre per year, central Illinois was up per year by 0.61 bushels per acre and southern Illinois increased by 0.58 bushels per acre per year over 40 years. “There’s a little bit less variability around the soybean trends lines compared to what we saw with corn — on a percentage basis, not too much different,” Nafziger noted. As yields increased from 1980 to 2019, June through August rainfall in the Prairie State has increased about 2 inches in all regions. Temperature trends in Illinois over the last 40 years were consistent among regions, but at different levels. The maximum daily summer temperature — June through August — from 1980 to 2019 has decreased about 0.27 degrees per decade on average across Illinois and in southern Illinois, decreased less than that in central Illinois and there was no decrease in northern Illinois.

“There’s not a very strong trend because there’s so much variability. The earth has certainly warmed some of the last 40 years, but here in Illinois it would show that at least the maximum daily temperature had not risen over that period of time,” Nafziger said. The minimum daily growing season temperature has increased by about 0.25 degrees per decade from 1980 to 2019 in all Illinois regions. “That’s actually not too far from the increase in the earth’s temperature over at least part of that period. It’s also highly variable, but that does show a different trend than maximum temperature,” Nafziger added. CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS “When I first learned about carbon dioxide and crops, which was about 1970, we were talking about 325 or so parts per million, and today it’s See BUSHELS, Page 7

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BUSHELS 415 parts per million. Just in the last 50 years, it’s gone up by that amount,” Nafziger said. “This is one that there isn’t any debate about. We can argue about what affect that has on weather, but we certainly can’t argue that carbon dioxide has not increased — and some people are even willing to argue that now.” Carbon dioxide and other gases in the air act as a “greenhouse” to trap heat from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere. The earth’s air temperature has been rising since about 1970 and is now about 1.8 degrees higher than the 1950 to 1980 baseline. This change is not distributed uniformly around the globe. Changing air temperatures have affected rainfall, as well. This is not uniform as rainfall in the Corn Belt has shown no real trend. Rainfall distribution patterns have changed in some regions of the world, though, with larger storm events and more extended dry periods. OTHER GASES Carbon dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas. Water vapor and clouds are present in huge quantities compared to other greenhouse gases, but are highly variable. Evaporation cools the air.

AG MATTERS | Shaw Media/ March 2021

FROM PAGE SIX

Methane from flooded land such as swamps and rice production fields, thawing tundra, ruminants and escapes of natural gas all contribute methane, and it’s a major source of greenhouse gas. Nitrous oxide, which is mostly released by microbes from nitrogen applied as fertilizer — estimated at about 1% of the amount of fertilizer N applied — is also a greenhouse gas source. Each greenhouse gas is assigned a rating based on how long it lasts in the air and how well it traps heat. The global warming potential of carbon dioxide has a 1 rating, and the 20-year global warming potential for methane, because it stays in the air longer than a year, is 84 and 264 is the rating for nitrous oxide. “These are not released as bigger quantities as is carbon dioxide, but they have a lot more effect on the warming than carbon dioxide does. That’s why we fret and try to figure out how to reduce the amount of nitrous oxide that’s released from cornfields,” Nafziger said. “Climate change is not uniformly distributed throughout the world. The U.S. Corn Belt has warmed less than many regions in the world. This is expected to continue. From 1990 to 2019, there have been large increases in the Arctic Circle, Africa, Europe and the Atlantic Ocean off of the U.S. eastern seaboard compared to what we have in the Corn Belt.” See CORN, Page 8

Emerson Nafziger, University of Illinois crop sciences professor emeritus, looked at climate change and its impact on crop yields at U of I Extension’s Crop Management Conference.

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Shaw Media/ March 2021

| AG MATTERS

8 CORN

FROM PAGE SEVEN

LOOKING AHEAD Predicting the effect of warming on weather in a region is done by atmospheric scientists using high-powered models that use expected global warming potential and carbon dioxide changes to predict changes in weather. Yield trend model predictions vary a lot, so they are averaged over a number of models to give a “best guess.” Nafziger used 32 models in the data. These models make predictions under several scenarios, Representative Concentration Pathways, that differ on how much greenhouse gas will increase in the atmosphere over the coming decades. One model projects a medium rate of change, with global peak temperatures late in the 21st century — only if the amount of carbon dioxide emitted decreases. The second model projects a faster rise in temperature over a longer period that likely if the greenhouse gas emission rates remain high. These models were used to project temperature and yields from 2020 to 2075. Illinois rainfall prediction models for 2020-2075 using Representative Concentration Pathways indicate very small changes in rainfall. The maximum daily predicted tem-

peratures for 2020-2075 model project a rise of 0.7 degrees per decade for a total increase of 3.9 degrees if the amount of carbon dioxide emitted decreases. Should greenhouse gas emission rates remain high, temperatures from 2020 to 2075 are projected to increase by 1.4 degrees per decade to a total of 7.8 degrees warmer by 2075. Minimum temperatures are showing a similar pattern with an increase of 0.6 degrees per decade if there is a reduction in greenhouse gas emitted and a 1.2 degree increase emissions continue to rise. The average corn yield from 2015 to 2019 was 185 bushels per acre and soybeans came in at 54 bushels per acre. One way to predict future U.S. yields is to take current trend lines and extend it out to 2075. This would indicate average corn and soybean yields of 307 and 86 bushels per acre, respectively, by 2075. Using 32 weather variability models for predicting Illinois corn yields for 2020-2075 — the middle eight models were used for determining an average — the trend line is a 2.2 bushel per acre increase each year to 312 by 2075. Under the assumption that the amount of carbon dioxide emitted decreases, the average corn yield is projected to increase by 1.63 bushels per acre per year through 2075. If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, the annual average yield increase would be 1.3 bushels per acre

through 2075. Using the same weather models for Illinois soybeans, using a trend line increase of 0.58 bushels per acre per year, yields would go from 56.2 in 2020 to 88 bushels per acre trend line in 2075. With medium warming, yields are projected to increase by 0.48 bushels per acre per year to 79 bushels per acre by 2075. Under the scenario where greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, soybean yields would increase by 0.43 bushels per acre per year to an average of 76 bushels per acre by 2075. “The bottom line is it makes sense

that yields will continue upward for many years, even if the rate of increase begins to slow,” Nafziger said. “You’re going to continue to see projections if you choose to look that show us yields really declining, and I just think over the next 50 years in Illinois that’s not a very realistic picture. Even if our climate changes, I don’t think yields are going to be less in 2090 than they are today.” Tom C. Doran can be reached at 815-780-7894 or tdoran@shawmedia. com. Follow him on Twitter at: @AgNews_Doran.

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Managing emerging insects By Tom C. Doran

AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Dectes stem borer and bean leaf beetle were troublesome for some soybean growers in parts of Illinois last growing season. Nick Seiter, University of Illinois field crop entomologist, noted bean leaf beetle was an emerging problem in northern Illinois in 2020 and dectes stem borer has been gaining attention for several years in southern Illinois. He focused on management strategies for the pests at the recent Illinois Soybean Association’s Soybean Summit. “The bean leaf beetle has been with us for many years, probably as along as we’ve been growing soybeans in Illinois, and probably before that in green beans and other legumes,” Seiter opened. “Dectes stem borer is an insect we’ve been paying a little bit more attention to in southern Illinois in recent years. See BORER, Page 11

Upon hatching, dectes stem root larva tunnels throughout the soybean plant’s stem and feeds on the pith.

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part of the problem. Timely harvest: Note fields that are infested with dectes stem borer and harvest those fields as early as possible to reduce lodging potential. Soybean stubble: Tillage will have “fairly mediocre success” in reducing the larva survival rate in a particular field, but adults move readily from their over-wintering sites to surrounding fields. Areas with a lot of no-till production are likely to have more issues with dectes stem borer. Tom C. Doran can be reached at 815-780-7894 or tdoran@shawmedia. com. Follow him on Twitter at: @AgNews_Doran.

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It’s not one that we’ve thought of historically as a major pest in Illinois, but one that we’re seeing more and more. This is one that we’d like everybody to learn a little bit in terms of the biology and management to be ready to deal with it in soybeans in southern Illinois in particular.” Dectes stem borer adults are a bluish gray long-horned beetle that chews holes into the plant, typically into the soybean petiole, and lays eggs in the pitch. Upon hatching, the larva tunnels throughout the stem and feeds on the pith. “The adult isn’t really going to damage soybeans. However, the larva feed on pith within the soybean stem and the damage can be fairly noticeable if you open a stem up and find feeding,” Seiter said. Feeding in the petioles often results in individual petioles wilting or falling completely off of the plant, which is usually the first sign of an infestation. “They’re going to feed on the pith, especially the structural part of that pith within the xylem and the phloem. So, the actual impact of vascular flow within the main stem is relatively minor,” Seiter said. “They’ll line the tunnels with frass. It’s not just a hallowing out of the stem that you’ll see sometimes for a variety reasons, but they’ll have a tunnel

MANAGEMENT Insecticides are generally not recommended for control because the larvae are protected within the stem and the adults lay eggs over a long period of time in the summer — approximately mid-July through August in Illinois. There are the following management options available: Monitoring: There is no economic threshold established, but finding adults at higher than average numbers will be the first indication of a problem. Look for wilting or broken-off petioles and split soybean stems toward the end of the season to gauge the infestation levels. Also, examine soybean stems in the lodged areas to determine if dectes stem borer was

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AG MATTERS | Shaw Media/ March 2021

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through there that’s going to be lined with their excrement. “The damage may look pretty bad and I think most would say it looks pretty bad and looks like it’s going to have a pretty serious impact on yield. It actually doesn’t. The actual yield reduction we see from the tunneling in and of itself from this feeding on the pith is minimal, if any.” The economic losses from dectes stem borer occur if the damage leads to lodging. As the plant nears maturity, larva moves to the base of the stem where it over-winters. This can cause the plant to break off and lead to harvest problems and reduced yield. “We don’t see this every time that a field is infested. In fact, we don’t see it all that often. Where we’re more likely to see this lodging is when, for whatever reason, typically the weather, those plants have had an opportunity to sit out there in the field for some time after they’ve matured. So, it does take some time for this to occur,” Seiter said. “Where we especially saw some lodging in spots was when we had fairly wet conditions throughout the fall of 2018 when we had trouble getting into the field. We did see some lodging from this insect and of course that can have serious impact on yield and not just on yield, but also on harvest efficiency. That potential for lodging is something we want to avoid if at all possible.”

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Shaw Media/ March 2021

| AG MATTERS

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