By TIM ALEXANDER

Illinois Correspondent

PEORIA, Ill. — A handful of Illinois farmers can see their finish line when it comes to crop development leading to harvest. Thousands more are still wondering how far they have to go to gain a glimpse of it.

Consider: 80 percent of the 2019 Illinois soybean crop was planted after June 1, and 10 percent after July 1. More than half the corn was planted after June 1. This is a new record for late planting of soybean in Illinois, according to University of Illinois professor of agricultural economics Emerson Nafziger.

Prolonged spring rains and extended flooding, of course, were to blame for delays with both crops. The ramifications of delayed planting were reflected in the Sept. 16 USDA Illinois Crop Progress and Condition report: just 1 percent of the Illinois corn crop had been harvested, but, more tellingly, corn dented was rated at just 67 percent – 32 percent behind last year’s pace.

And though 93 percent of soybean plants had set pods, just 25 percent were yellowing and only 3 percent dropping leaves.

Variability in corn quality and kernel quantity is rampant throughout the state, according to Illinois Corn Growers Assoc. Executive President Rod Weinzierl. He remains confident, however, that Illinois will eclipse the USDA September projection of 180 bushels per acre for the state.

“We think trend (yield) in Illinois will be around 190, 191. This will still be around 10 percent off (normal state trend yield),” said Weinzierl, a corn and soybean producer from Stanford in McLean County. “I think the challenge with figuring out yields this year is that we have April-planted corn, carrying some huge yields and looking good, but then we have the later-planted corn.”

“The May-planted corn went into a lot of unfavorable conditions in a lot of places, and you might have good corn in some parts of the field and some iffy-looking corn in wetter areas.

“And then there is the June-planted crop; more corn was planted in Illinois in June than at any other time in the last three decades. That corn is at least three more weeks from black layer, which means maturity. We are running a couple of weeks late, even on the early corn,” he added.

Independent crop surveys from Weinzierl’s home county project optimistic returns for corn. 2019 McLean County corn yield estimates performed by First Mid Ag Services (formerly Soy Capital Services) call for an estimated average yield of 197.3 bushels per acre – still 9 percent below the five-year average – based on 1,600 samples from 160 locations.

Bell Enterprises’ survey of 131 crop fields in western McLean, Woodford, and Tazewell counties called for an “adjusted” corn yield of 204.74 bushels per acre. Pro Farmer’s annual crop tour of Illinois, however, calls for just 170 for corn, along with 50 for soybeans, statewide, in 2019.

Not many soybeans in western Illinois were planted before May, meaning a lot of farmers are looking at yields more typical of late-season or double-cropped beans. This is according to Stephanie Porter, a certified crop advisor with Syngenta and past CCA Soy Envoy for the Illinois Soybean Assoc.

“We’re starting to see some color change in some late-planted beans, but there is still growth going on. In western Illinois we got a lot of rain in August when others didn’t, and the difference is apparent. I was in a plot in eastern Illinois yesterday and I was shocked by how bad the condition of soybeans were there,” she said.

Similar August rainfalls during 2012 boosted a threatened soybean crop in Porter’s Taylorville area, she said, and growers there are hoping for a similar result this season. However, 2019’s variable weather conditions and periods of drought will negatively impact the statewide harvest.

“We have areas of the state where they had too much rain, and then other areas where drought caused issues with lack of pods. We are not seeing a lot of disease, overall, though some disease has hit late in Illinois where it was raining. I don’t think (disease) will impact yield. We are also seeing stink bugs right now, but our biggest impact this year is coming from Mother Nature and the rate of planting,” said Porter.

“If I had to guess, I would say we are going to be about 20 bushels less than we normally are across the state, on average.”

Southern Illinois soybean yield totals will likely average around half of what is harvested in central and western Illinois, Porter speculated.

In a Sept. 18 U of I farmdoc essay, “Corn and Soybeans Move Towards the Finish Line,” Nafziger noted that late planting seems to have resulted in lower pod numbers in soybeans in many areas.

“Plants I’ve looked at certainly have some pods at most nodes, but they aren’t crowded on the stem (nodes) like we saw in a lot of fields in 2018. Many plants have only two or three pods per node, and only 10-12 nodes with pods,” he observed.

“We don’t know if this affects yields compared to having most or all of the pods on the main stem, but given that it affects which leaves end up in full sunlight, it might mean lower rates of seedfilling in the branch pods.”

The Sept. 1 USDA yield estimate for Illinois soybeans was 53 bushels per acre, down 2 from its August 1 projected yield estimate.