DEER CREEK, Ill. – The 2020 harvest is heading down the homestretch in Illinois with farmers and grain buyers reporting bountiful – but not record-setting – early corn and soybean yields. As of Oct. 13, the Illinois corn harvest stood at 45 percent complete and the soybean harvest at 56 percent complete, well in line with historical averages. Corn quality was rated at 51 percent good and 17 percent excellent, while soybeans earned a 51 percent good and 15 percent excellent rating, according to USDA’s Illinois Crop Progress and Condition report.

Soybean yields appear to be down slightly, observed Kim Craig, grain merchandiser for Bell Enterprises in Deer Creek, a small farming community that straddles western Woodford and eastern Tazewell counties. “In this area we are probably 85 percent done with beans and I would guess we are 50 percent done with corn, based on my projections. The test weight of the beans is heavier this year than in past years but the yields are down, which is a little odd,” Craig reported.

“The bean yields this year are running right about 66.6 bushels per acre on non-GMO beans, and on commodity beans they are running at about 63.9 (bu./acre). Last year’s production was 68 bushels for non-GMO beans. In general, the bean yields are a little bit down this year.”

Bean leaf beetles were present in many soybean fields within Bell’s service area – which includes Mackinaw, Deer Creek, Congerville and Goodfield – late in the growing season, Craig noted. “There wasn’t damage to the heart of the bean, but you could see it damaged some seed coats in some instances,” he said, adding that moisture levels were generally higher in soybeans grown by Bell’s farmers this year.

The 2020 weighted average yield for corn brought to Bell Enterprises is 215.1 bu./acre, Craig said. This compares nicely to the 2019 final harvest of 215.9 bu./acre in the region. Bell’s August 2020 yield tour estimated the corn crop in central Illinois at 211.4 bu./acre, based on surveys of more than 100 area crop fields. “We should be within one or two bushels of our yield tour estimate with our final numbers,” Craig said.

Moisture ran high in central Illinois corn early in the growing season but has lessened due to the dry August and, more recently, higher than average winds. “The last few days our corn has come in in that 18 to 19 percent moisture range, so I don’t see us having the problem with moisture we may have had two or three weeks ago,” Craig said.

Confirming Craig’s analysis of 2020 central Illinois soybean yields, Bob Janssen, of Minonk in Woodford County, reported that his soybeans did not fare as well as they did last year. “Our beans are about half done and are running 10 to 15 bushels less than last year, with moisture between 9 and 12 (percent). Our corn is not yet done enough to get a really good yield idea, but the weather has been great for a beautiful harvest. We have not had any issues so far,” he said.

South of Yorkville in Kendall County, Mike Homerding, Illinois Corn Growers Association District 1 director, said the harvest of his northern Illinois corn, seed corn and soybean fields was progressing without incident.

“Soybeans have been fairly consistent for the most part. We’ve had some spectacular fields and some so-so fields. That hot, dry weather in August kind of took everything out of them. But overall I would say that we are right on our average yield for our soybeans, and consistent with our crop history for the past few years,” said Homerding, who is conducting the 2020 harvest with his brother, father-in-law and a couple of employees.

Homerding added that his corn yields are looking good with plants drying down quickly to desirable test weight. “We’re pretty happy with it to be honest with you. We’re running right along the trend line for our operation. When we get back into our corn on Monday, we are expecting (moisture) to be in the teens for the most part. Last year we started the dryer in October and it ran every day until the first week of December,” he said.

In southern Illinois, Elliott Uphoff, of Shelbyville, was 100 percent done with his soybean harvest and about 65 percent finished with corn on Oct.  15. Favorable weather allowed Uphoff, who is District 10 director for the Illinois Soybean Association, to complete his soybean harvest in about 10 days.

“They were getting really dry really quick,” said Uphoff, who planted most of his beans in late April and more from May 30 through June 4. The fifth-generation Shelby County farmer noted that his early bean yield returns were not as high as he had expected. “We were really planning on most of the beans coming in between 65 and 70 bushels per acre, and now we are just hoping that all of our fields are going to make 60. We didn’t have any August rain to speak out, and that’s pretty crucial,” he said.

Uphoff’s corn harvest began on Sept. 20 but slowed considerably while the beans were taken down. The first corn harvested came in at around 23 to 25 percent moisture and required drying. He said he was “happy” with his initial corn yields but doesn’t believe the 2020 corn harvest will produce his greatest yields.

“Emergence wasn’t great because it was a chilly April and that corn was not popping out of the ground. We didn’t have the best stand out there, but where we did have good stand, it is really good corn. But we don’t have enough of it out there to have record yields,” Uphoff said. “I would say we are going to have a corn harvest of 200 (bu./acre) or less on the lower ground and up to 240 on the higher ground, at the most.”

The harvest is also progressing nicely in Indiana, where corn harvested for grain jumped from 22 to 34 percent complete last week, and the soybean harvest stood at 52 percent complete – a 22 percent leap in progress from the week before, according to the USDA.

In Ohio, the 2020 corn for grain harvest stands at 15 percent complete, compared with nine percent the week prior. Soybean harvest progress jumped to 49 percent complete, compared to just 21 percent complete the prior week.

The Iowa corn harvest has reached 42 percent complete, three weeks ahead of last year and two weeks ahead of average. Nearly one-quarter of Iowa’s soybean crop was taken down during the week ending Oct. 11 with 78 percent now harvested, over three weeks ahead of last year and over two weeks ahead of average, according to the USDA.