In Southern Minnesota farmers are done with the soybean harvest and are quickly moving through corn with the help of Mother Nature.
While the corn crop in other areas of the Corn Belt has fallen short of the hype, that wasn’t the case for Mike Madsen of Heron Lake, who was in a garden spot. “We seen things we’ve never seen on yield monitors before,” he said.
This fall, Madsen is having the corn harvest of a lifetime. “It’ll be the best year in my career and I think in a lot of local farmers careers that have been farming for 30 or 40 years,” Madsen said.
Record Corn Yields Started at Planting
Madsen says it began this spring with one of the fastest planting seasons ever on his farm. “It was early and it was quick,” explains Madsen. “So, that just that’s how this yield thing started was with our early planting, especially in the corn.”
That lead to a perfect stand, followed by a nearly ideal agronomic growing season.
Perfect Growing Season
“We only dream of seasons like this where you get a shot of rain every four to five days,” adds Madsen. “That pretty much held true from planting through corn pollination.”
Madsen says the corn also escaped the hot nighttime temperatures during pollination and fill that hurt test weights and yields in other areas of the Corn Belt.
“Our nighttime temperatures are what I think brings on a lot of this yield,” said Madsen. “We were under that 70 degree mark all but a couple nights in August.”
Corn Dodged Disease Pressure
Southern Minnesota farmers were also able to dodge some of the heavy disease pressure in corn like Southern Rust thanks to the added protection of fungicides.
“The early sprayed corn is [seeing] a 10 to 20 bushel increase,” explains Madsen. “If you sprayed later then there is an even better return. There’s been some talk of a 30 to 70 bushel increase from spraying fungicide this year.”
Record Corn Yields at 250 Plus
Madsen’s corn yields at harvest are 20 to 30 bushels over his Actual Production History or APH, with even the early maturities exceeding expectations.
“Our 100 day and under was running 220 to 240,” counts Madsen. “As we get into harvest, now we’re into our later corn, which is anywhere from 100 to even up to 110 day maturity. We’re seeing 250 bushels plus.”
So, 2025 will go down in history as a record corn yield on the Madsen farm. And with those kind of results across the lower third of the state, he thinks Minnesota’s statewide corn yield could even top Iowa and Illinois this year.
Corn is Dry
Early corn was also dry at 15% to 16% moisture, the later corn is a bit wetter but it will save him on drying costs.
“The 100 to 110 days are between 17% and 18%,” Madsen said. “We can manage that in the grain bins with some air on it.” Which is good as he’s storing most of his corn and soybean crop this fall due to the low prices.
Soybean Yields Disappointing
Madsen’s soybean harvest was done on October 9. He says his crop missed key August rains and saw early disease pressure from white mold tied to early planting. While bean yields were well above average in his area, they were disappointing on his farm.
“Yields were around 60 bushels per acre and we were a little bit under that and so it wasn’t a total train wreck,” said Madsen. “It was way better than last year so we’ll take it.”
