Harvest
Will 2026 be a repeat of 2016? Chris Barron, Ag View Solutions, shares four strategies to help farmers capture some profit in this down cycle.
A detailed “farming playbook” can help guide essential input investments and maximize ROI.
While many farmers in the state were delighted by the results the 2025 season delivered, that wasn’t the case everywhere. In some areas, Mother Nature delivered a series of agronomic problems that dominoed and turned a potential bin buster crop into one that was average at best by harvest.
After three straight years of having a May-planted crop that outperformed corn planted only a few weeks earlier, some Illinois farmers are ready to throw in the towel on planting corn before the calendar turns to May.
The impact of disease and dry conditions are becoming increasingly evident as combines roll. More than 70% of farmers report steady or lower yields in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota.
With contributing factors ranging from insect pressure to disease and environmental stressors this season, agronomists say farmers face hard decisions on when to combine their crop in affected fields.
The new technology is being evaluated in Farm Journal Test Plots this fall and catching a lot of farmer interest in the process. Check out our brief video showing the system at work in a central Illinois cornfield.
Matt Splitter says he has harvested more corn in the past 10 days than he did during the last two seasons combined. But he says two straight years of drought and high input costs could keep him and other farmers in the state from reaching financial wholeness.
Herbicides and defoliants are commonly used by farmers in southern regions to quicken the harvest period and reduce the risk of shatter loss and poor test weights. Now, Midwest growers and researchers are looking at how to use the practice.
From Texas through the Mid-South, defoliation decisions are top of mind, while Georgia deals with a new insect threat, the jassid leafhopper, which has severely affected some acres.
New analysis from AccuWeather points to the increasing frequency of heavy rain events, resulting in greater flood risk
It’s a head-scratcher situation: some Illinois farmers are reporting moisture levels in their corn are dropping only one point per week.
All it takes to spark a flame sometimes is a single high-temperature source in the engine area or an overheated bearing that ignites some dry plant material. Take control of the situation in advance by having a brief plan ready to implement. Communicate it to your family and employees.
Use one or more of these tips to reduce expenses, reallocate resources and build a fertility program that works well for your farm and gives you some peace of mind in the process.
It’s not disease hurting the Illinois corn and soybean crop this year. It’s dryness and drought. Ashland, Ill., farmer Brent Johnson says just two weeks into harvest, the dry finish to summer is eating into both his corn and soybean yields.
The crop took it on the chin this season, with some Iowa farmers reporting huge yield losses as harvest gets underway. A one-time fungicide application helped, but it wasn’t enough to buck severe disease pressure, allowing it to return.
The crop is drying down rapidly, given the weather conditions across much of the country. Agronomists are concerned farmers will combine fields too late and advise starting at 13% moisture or even higher.
Tom Ritter was just weeks away from his 51st harvest, but an everyday task on the farm of cleaning out a grain bin with a vac turned fatal as a shelf of corn caved in on him in the bin.
Agronomic specialists are encouraging farmers to make their corn harvest plans now, prioritizing which fields to combine first and so forth. Evaluating how well the crop is standing on a field by field basis can help you plan the process and minimize having to pick up down corn.
Kernel depth and fill contribute significantly to yield in newer hybrids. It’s one reason a ‘Hail Mary’ fungicide pass might still offer ROI and keep corn standing until combines roll.
Levels of concern could be elevated if the precipitation forecast doesn’t change.
The onset of drought and disease are causing growing concerns about the size of the U.S. corn and soybean crops this year. Analysts caution while the crops may be going backward in terms of yield, it’s possible USDA actually raises its yield estimates in the September report.
The Midwest crop is being pushed into black layer (R6) prematurely in some areas in ways that are easy to confuse with normal drydown factors.
With $8 cash soybean bids in the Dakotas and Minnesota, and no bids for fall in a few markets, farmers might need to break the norm and store soybeans.
The disease is causing turmoil for farmers who have a large crop in the making. In some cases, a Hail Mary fungicide application at R4 up to early dent (R5) might make sense this season, say agronomists.
The online platform currently has about 500 programs and service providers in the Midwest participating and is a free resource for farmers, ranchers and their advisers.
The Minnesota corn crop is going for gold. Pro Farmer Crop Tour scouts expect the crop will reach a record 202.86 bu. average, if it can outpace southern rust and tar spot. Scouts peg the Iowa corn crop at a 198.43 bu. average, but it also faces disease challenges.
Iowa could be the nation’s top state this year for corn and soybeans, but both crops are in a race to beat disease pressure that’s gaining momentum. Illinois corn continues to ride the struggle bus, while the soybean crop there is positioned to deliver high yields.