Use the interactive map below to see all this year’s reports just by clicking the flagged locations. Click the box in the upper left-land corner of the map to bring up an index of what the different colors of the markers signify and to toggle the week’s reports on and off.

Many farmers harvesting 200-bushel corn this year would be pleased as punch. But in Illinois that type of yield can be disappointing, a sign of what looks sure to be the first below normal crops in seven years.

After a growing season that started with floods and included drought in some areas and an October blizzard, yields reported by producers last week weren’t all that different than USDA published in its recent production report. Growers put corn yields at 167 bushels per acre, 1.4 bpa below the government’s assessment. Farmers said soybeans averaged 48 bpa, 1.1 bushels per acre above USDA.

Yield reports from Illinois last week showed just how varied production is. Corn yields in the Land of Lincoln ran from 120 to 215 bpa. Soybeans ranged from 32 to 63 bpa.

“Corn is 40-50 bushels off from 2018 yields,” said a central Illinois farmers with 200-bushel corn. Soybean of 55 bpa were down 20 from a year ago when farmers in the state knocked it out of the park.

While one farmer reporting from Illinois last week was done with soybeans, others were concerned about potential frost ahead of a chilly weekend.

Further north along the Illinois River another producer was looking at 160-bushel corn and 45-bushel soybeans – when harvest actually begins.

“Nothing going on much in our area,” was the news. “Still wet fields and immature crops are keeping combines in the shed.”

At least the moisture in Illinois wasn’t white. That wasn’t the case in the northwest Corn Belt, where the Dakota blizzard extended into Minnesota.

A grower in Western Minnesota was already disappointed by soybean yields early in the week before the snow started flying. ”We now have 7 inches of snow on top of the already wet conditions,” was the post. “This could be the 1st year that I will not be able to combine the bean crop.”

Source: Bryce Knorr, Farm Futures