Football

Low rainfall levels throughout the Midwest in the late summer and early autumn have caused water levels on the upper and lower Mississippi, as well as the Illinois, Missouri and Ohio rivers, to drop.

We have all but finished our harvest for the year. Corn chopping went extremely smooth with no rain delays and to my recollection only one truck needing pulled all season long — surely a record.

Our farms aren’t just another workplace for us. We raise our families on this land. We can’t be expected to play by the rules, though, when the federal government refuses to let us know what those rules are.

After waiting, not so patiently, for the corn to mature, we finally had a field last week get mature enough to start chopping. Now we will race to stay ahead of the corn getting too mature.

One of the longest-running sponsorships in U.S. motorsports is also one of the largest. Hall Brothers Racing, headquartered in central Illinois, has been sponsored by the Dodge brand since 2001.

It has taken a village, actually a city, and many months, but the effort to bring back agriculture education to Dixon High School is nearing completion.

Illinois Farm Families’ “We Are the 96%” campaign will resume paid advertising opportunities in January and February, concluding with a Super Bowl commercial for Illinois audiences on Feb. 11.

Illinois high school football teams have entered the final weeks of playoffs, but one team already has a championship title.

In Farm Bureau, we are looking to the future — from policy shaping agriculture to the innovation driving America’s farms and ranches. That future depends on training tomorrow’s leaders today.

This morning suddenly feels like late fall. If they are going to get the beans cut, it needs to stop the misting and sprinkles — although we are already at the point where the beans are getting too dry.

We have not received any real precipitation since we started chopping corn, so the dusty roads have been an issue, but on the flip side we haven’t had the chain hooked to trucks yet.

We pressed hard and got all the rest of the cow herds through the chute and the calves all vaccinated for the first time before all our wranglers took off for school. Chopping corn is the top priority right now.

The dairy checkoff marked its 13th year of impact through Fuel Up to Play 60 — a school wellness program in partnership with the NFL — while preparing an evolved strategy.

If someone sounds familiar at the Half Century of Progress Show, that will be the voice of Chris Karr. This is the 11th Half Century of Progress that Karr will announce.

The Indy 500 Milk Person, Kerry Estes, is prepared to hand off the iconic glass of milk to the winning driver on race day.

Remember French bread pizzas? If so, those memories are likely nostalgic, comforting, cozy, crunchy, soft and warm, with that aroma that made the whole house smell good.

A coalition of Illinois farm associations are joining together to make 2023 the Year of the Farmer with a statewide campaign that launches Feb. 12 during football’s biggest game, the Super Bowl.

The Illinois Soybean Association checkoff program is sharing its “Good to be Soy” message with Fighting Illini fans in their fall and winter sports lineup. ISA hosted a “Good to be Soy” tailgate within the Grange Grove quadrant next to Memorial Stadium before kickoff.

I’m delighted to report that our aerial seeding of wheat into standing soybeans is a success. Even though it’s been extremely dry, some rainfall evidently found its way to the wheat seeds lying beneath mulch provided by the fallen soybean leaves and every seed germinated.

Illinois corn and soybean farmers are fueling the Illinois High School Association football championships this fall — literally.

A top executive at plant-based food company Beyond Meat has been charged with felony battery after a fight outside a college football game in which he was accused of biting a man’s nose.