Hot, dry weather across the Midwest in recent weeks is causing premature corn death in some areas.

Mike Toohill is an agronomist with Diversified Crop Insurance Services in Bloomington, Illinois. He tells Brownfield it is a widespread problem in the northern half of Illinois and Iowa.

“Because we had so many spring rains this year, soils are very hard and tight and root penetration isn’t as much as we’d like to see.

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