Ahhh, the Fox Valley.. Grew up there and still visit my folks. More deer around my house now than there were 20 years ago and a lot less places for them to hide unfortunatley...

Most farms around here have no irrigation. They are dry, the people who have taken ear samples on their corn are getting between 20-50 KERNALS an ear and that is it. Ground that produced 200 bushels last year is being described as a catastophic loss here, pastures don't grow more than 1/2 inch in a month and are now dormant. My 60 acre alfalfa field that gave 276 tons last year on the first two cuttings (Which is a HUGE yield, don't get me wrong) gave me 130 tons this year while the Barley hay fields went from 4 large bales an acre to 1.5 bales an acre... Bad. Bad. Bad.

Deer are much more active around here this year than last as they are scampering for water sources and food sources. I have had hay bales being hit hard that are stacked for winter feeding. Locals are now saying this year looks like it is going to worse than 1988 and so far we are the 3rd driest year in the past 100 years so that should come as no surprise. Oh well, these things happen.

The only good wildifle thing I have seen this year, and I have no explanation for this, is that small game numbers seem to be up again this year around here. Rabbits, Quail and even pheasants (Though, they are the scarest of the 3 of late, but they tend to hide better on my farm until fall roles around).