2026 Fall Farm Outlook Lincoln Daily News Oct 2026 Page 11 Fortunately, the article states that warm weather itself is not likely to cause lower pollination rates. If that heat is accompanied by drought, however, this is much more likely to have a negative impact. “Drought stress along with high temperatures at pollination and silking… can have serious effects.” The article did have a suggestion for helping to retain soil moisture during drought and high temperatures. “Practices that conserve soil moisture such as no-till or reduced till will improve a crop’s performance during drought.” Moving on to soy beans, they are a little more sensitive to the heat than corn. Rachel Vann with the North Carolina State University Extension wrote in an article that soybeans begin to experience stress when the temperature exceeds 85℉ and remains so for several days. Much like corn, “soybeans will be particularly stressed when excessive heat and drought conditions occur simultaneously.” Vann wrote that high temperatures have the chance to slow or stop photosynthesis in soybean plants due to the plant closing its stomata to try to conserve water. “High temperatures can result in any of the following in reproductive stage soybeans: aborted flowers, aborted small pods, aborted seeds in larger pods, and production of smaller seeds.” Considering that, even in ideal conditions, soybean plants are unable to turn all flowers into pods, this can be devastating to the amount of soybean flowers the plant is able to produce. Vann wrote “depending on the level of stress, 20-80% of soybean flowers will be aborted.” This, therefore, would lead to an equal percentage decrease in the amount of soybeans produced. Like corn, though, it is the one-two punch of high heat and dry conditions that have the worst outcome on soybeans. Farmers growing plants are not the only ones facing challenges due to the heat. Much like people, livestock are also negatively affected by extreme temperatures. Illinois is one of the top pork producing states in the United States. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the heat is especially bad for pigs. In an article titled Hot Situation for Hogs, the USDA wrote “pigs are very sensitive to heat because they don’t sweat and therefore have trouble responding to excessive heat.” According to the USDA article, the heat has a negative impact on things such as a pig’s ability to get pregnant and maintain that pregnancy. In addition to this, if exposed to heat during their pregnancy, pigs “tend to grow slower, are less efficient, their immune systems are compromised, and they get more stressed during standard production procedures.” It is
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