Illinois Farmer Says Despite Disease Pressure, Yields are Similar to 2024 Harvest

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 14:47:02 GMT

Favorable harvest weather is pushing more combines out into the field as USDA says 11% of the nation’s corn crop and 9% of soybeans have been harvested. In Illinois, farmers are ahead of the five-year average.

“So far so good,” says Brian Parkinson, a farmer in Wataga, Ill. “We’re just really getting started.”

He and his brother, Rod, along with Rod’s son, Austin, opened their first corn field on Monday. While they’re still calibrating and getting equipment sorted, early yields are keeping pace with 2024 and in the 250 bushels per acre range.

“It’s looking good so far,” Rod echoes. “Right now the corn is about 21.5% moisture, and so it’s changed a lot in a week.”

The hum of the header rumbles down the rows as the Parkinson combine chews through these first fields. The soybeans they harvested last week tallied in the 80 bushel range.

“We cut beans last week because the corn was too wet,” Rod explains. “Luckily, we had some early group 2.7 and 3.1 soybeans that were ready.”

Rod Parkinson farms near Wataga, IL

(Wyffels)

They stayed out of the corn for a few extra days to save money on drying costs. This week, as the yield monitor tallies the haul, it’s proving to have been a good decision.

“The general consensus is the crop is very good,” Rod says. “Yields may be a little bit less than a year ago but they are very solid.”

An Imperfect Season

That’s good news after what’s been a season of uncertainty following concerns about disease pressure and spotty rains in August.

“The disease pressure was definitely more than normal,” Rod says. “There’s still a fair amount of disease. You can see a lot of tar spot. There’s gray leaf spot on these plants. I would say this is probably the worst disease pressure we’ve seen in quite a while.”

In their pocket of the Midwest, the disease showed up late, and fungicides seemed to help in most cases.

“From the guys who have been in the field, fungicide is probably providing a 10-to-20-bu. advantage on a one-pass, over-the-top program,” Rod says. “If fungicide didn’t pay this year, it’s never going to pay.”

An expense that didn’t go unnoticed, given the challenges of the 2025 farm economy. Rod’s advice is to trust the numbers.

“Most people have been farming a long time,” Rod says. “Do what you know works and do the things that have a return on investment.”

Focus on the Future

For them, getting it right is a chance to spend another season in the family business.

“Our great-grandfather bought this farm in 1920,” Rod says. “His name was Frank Parkinson.”

“It’s a family tradition, I guess,” Brian laughs. “I think Rod and I are now the fifth generation.”

As this team works to harvest the excitement of the 2025 crop, they’re also optimistic about the future.

“I think I have the best job in the world, to be able to farm and sell seed,” Rod says. “We just hope the market comes back some. We’ll keep moving. We’ve seen it before.”

West Central Illinois Farmer Says Corn Yields Are Down 20 to 30 Bu. Per Acre From Last Year

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 12:25:15 GMT

Perched on the edge of what’s considered to be abnormally dry to moderate drought, west central Illinois farmer Brent Johnson had high hopes for yields at the start of this year. A strong start with even emergence set the groundwork for a solid crop. Instead, as harvest rushes in, the reality of an extremely dry finish to summer is also setting in.

“The corn right now, the general consensus is it’s off 20 to 30 bushels [per acre] from last year and soybeans are off by about 8 to 15 [bu. per acre],” Johnson says.

Johnson started combining on September 3. Two weeks into harvest, he’s finding a good crop — but definitely not as good as last year.

“We didn’t have the finish that we did last year in corn or soybeans. Nothing is ideal, right? But with 98 million acres of corn, maybe we didn’t need that finish. But yields are off,” he says.

Latest look at the U.S. Drought Monitor shows abnormally dry to severe drought conditions across much of the growing region, including Illinois. It’s was a dramatic shift after such a wet start to the growing season.

(U.S. Drought Monitor )

Some of Johnson’s fields haven’t seen rain in seven weeks. For other fields, it’s been as much as nine months since they’ve had measurable rainfall. And not only has it turned dry in their area of Illinois, but temperatures have soared over the past couple of weeks with temperatures above 90°F. In fact, where he farms just outside of Springfield, Ill., they recorded the hottest day of the year so far over the weekend.

“Oddly enough, as much heat as we’ve received, the corn is not drying as fast as I thought it would,” Johnson says. “We tried to harvest a field this morning that was planted end of April and it was still 30% moisture. So, we moved and we’re here now.”

Not Just Drought Eating Into Yields

Johnson says the dry weather definitely trimmed yield in their area, but there were other factors he thinks played a role as well.

“Between the dry weather, the extreme heat, the high nighttime temperatures — and then something we don’t often see — but the hazy days, the Canadian smoke, it impacted the crop. It just wasn’t a perfect year,” he says.

Kernel Weight is an Issue This Year

Johnson says the other surprise is kernel weights, and the fact it’s taking more kernels to make a bushel this year.

“That’s really where we see our highest yields year in, year out is when we have good, easy finishes to this corn crop in August and September, and we bring it to the finish line slowly. We expand those kernels. It’s kind of like going back to a buffet three, four or five times and finishing off that bowl of ice cream. They just swell, and that’s where we get our kernel weight. We don’t have that this year. We’re just racing to the finishing line,” Johnson says.

May Planted Corn May Be Hit the Hardest

The opposite happened this year. A quick finish is compromising kernel weight. And now what he’s concerned about is what the late-summer dryness could mean for his later-planted corn.

“I am a little concerned that maybe the May corn won’t be as good as it normally is because of the weather — similar to what we talked about with the later-maturity beans finishing later. So, it’s going be interesting,” Johnson says.

Johnson says for the past several years, his May planted corn has been his best yielding corn. But this year, he doubts that will hold true. He says some of his corn and soybean fields could still benefit from a rain, but it doesn’t look promising from the forecast.

Dry Weather Means Disease Pressure is Low

It may not be a perfect finish or a record crop, but one thing Johnson is thankful for is that they haven’t been overwhelmed by disease.

“Because we were so dry — we were much drier here than Iowa — we don’t have the Southern Rust pressure here that I’m seeing on social media and reading about that Iowa has,” he adds.

Soybean Yields Could Suffer

Johnson says even though yields are off, he’s actually impressed with how this corn crop finished this year in spite of the lack of rain and the heat. But with no rain in August, soybeans could be a different story.

“Beans are tricky so far because normally, we would be running pretty hard in. We use a fungicide, so we’re used to green stems and some green pods. But the beans are not maturing all at one time from what we’ve seen. So, the moisture in our sample of beans is relative to how many green beans and how many green pods are actually in the sample when they pull it at the elevator. We have yet to get a very good sample in beans, but again, we’ve only cut two fields. They were disappointing in yield. [We were] thinking that our late Group 2s would be some of our best, which gives me worry about some of the later stuff,” Johnson says.

Johnson says he if he had to describe this year’s crop, it would be “just ho-hum.”

A ho-hum crop, and one that had such a promising start here in west central Illinois, reveals record yields aren’t on tap in Illinois this year.

What caused the sudden shift to dry and hot weather? Watch the video below as Drew Lerner of World Weather looks at the drivers and how long it could last.

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