Ferrie: Huge Yield Swings Found In Iowa and Illinois Cornfields
This week, Ken Ferrie spent considerable time evaluating corn and soybean yield results to date across Iowa and Illinois. He provides a summary of what he learned in this week’s Boots In The Field podcast. Here is a brief recap of what he shared:
Northeast Iowa
Last weekend Ferrie traveled to northeast Iowa for a wedding and says a lot of the cornfields are harvested there because much of the crop has been dead since July.
“There was a black cloud in the air around the combine I rode in and black, silt-looking dust coming out of the combine,” he says. “When you go down the ladder your hands are just covered with it because the corn has been dead so long.”
Corn yields routinely swung between 100 bu. and 250 bu. in many fields. Soybeans were yielding in the 30-bu. to 50-bu. range.
“It was kind of like everywhere else, you could go a few miles and find some rain and the yields would bounce back pretty strong,” he says. “And there aren't that many miles between the haves and the have-nots in most places.”
Are The Lows In For Corn? Maybe Not Yet
Tar Spot Was An Issue
In fields around Reinbeck, Iowa, growers are about halfway done harvesting soybeans and a little less than that with the corn crop. Corn yields are in the 220-bu. to-275-bu. range.
“The early corn is in that 230-bu. range while the later planted, later maturing hybrids are bumping 275-bu. averages, especially those that were sprayed twice for tar spot,” Ferrie says. “They tried to do some fall chiseling, but the ground is just too hard, and they are also dealing with some field fires in that area due to how dry it is.”
He adds that growers in the Reinbeck, Iowa, area are seeing significant payoffs from defensive hybrids and variable-rate planting.
Illinois Perspectives
Near Grand Ridge, Ill., harvest is rolling along, Ferrie says. Beans are in the 70-bu. to-80-bu. range, and farmers are pleased with corn in the 200-bu. to-220-bu. range.
“Over at Wilmington, things are just getting started. Farmers’ beans there are running in the mid-50 bu. to 70 bu. so far. Corn is in that 200-bu. to 220-bu. range,” he says. But, he adds, harvest is really just getting started there.
Near Donovan, Ill., and along the Illinois-Indiana border, farmers are about 40% done with beans but only 10% along with the corn.
“Bean yields are in the 65-bu. to 75-bu. range, and corn is averaging 210 bu. to 230 bu.,” Ferrie says.
Harvest Update: Overall Soybean Progress Nears Halfway Point
On the west side of Illinois, near Quincy, farmers are about 30% done with corn and soybeans both. Corn yields have been ranging from 140 bu. to 240 bu.
“When I was talking to Matt [Duesterhaus], he was in the combine and said he just had a pass where yields swung from 80 bu. to 280 bu. in corn. Beans, he said, are swinging from 30 bu. to 85 bu. per acre, depending on how light the soil was.”
Green Leaf In Soybeans
Farmers are also fighting some green leaf in soybeans around the Quincy area. “The soybeans were almost ripe when they picked up a late rain causing the beans to put on some green leaves but no extra pods,” Ferrie says.
“Like in a lot of areas, the beans tested nine-and-a-half and they're cutting like silage.”
In the Winchester area, farmers there are 70% to 80% finished with both corn and beans. Corn yields are in the 225-bushel range and a lot of 75-bushel beans.
In the Lovington area, farmers are about 50% done on corn and 80% done on beans. Corn is in the 240-bu. range with a lot of beans in the 80-bu. range.
“It looks like tilled beans may be edging out the no-till and strip-till beans in yield,” Ferrie says.
Defensive Traits Shine
In Tazewell County, Sun Ag reports farmers are about 50% done with both corn and soybean harvest.
“Bean yields are running 70 bu. to 85-plus with corn yields in the 220-bu. to 250-bu. range,” Ferrie says. “The trends showing up in corn, looks like the more defensive hybrids are shining this year with the water limitations. It appears the full tillage beans are bumping out the no-till and strip-till beans over there as well.”
In central Illinois, near Bloomington, about 30% of soybeans and 20% of corn are harvested. Soybean yields are in the 65-bu. to 80-bu. range, and corn is 210 bu. to 250 bu.
Where anthracnose disease was an issue this season, farmers are seeing it take 20 bu. to 30 bu. off their 2022 corn yields.
“Walking those fields earlier this season, I was afraid that was going to be the case,” Ferrie says. “I can tell a lot of guys are a little discouraged with that.”
However, not every corn grower is discouraged, according to this report: Many Farmers in Illinois Finding Better Than Expected Yields Despite Drought and Heat
More of Ferrie’s harvest updates from across the two states are available here, on this week’s Boots In The Field podcast:
