Soybeans lead delayed harvest

A quarter of the crop was harvested last week alone, while just over a third of the entire corn crop is in

A farmer works through the corn harvest. (Flickr/United Soybean Board)

By Ted Cox

Soybeans are leading the way in the latest, slowest Illinois harvest in a decade.

The latest U.S. Department of Agriculture Crop Progress report released Monday found that Illinois farmers harvested a full quarter of the estimated soybean crop just in the week ending Sunday. The Illinois soybean harvest went from 27 percent on Oct. 13 to 52 percent complete a week later. While far behind the 72 percent that had been harvested at this time last year, it was closer to the average of 68 percent over the last five years.

Maple Park farmer Steve Pitstick reported last week in a FaceTime presentation that was part of an Illinois Soybean Association event at Chicago Ideas Week that he was starting the harvest with soybeans and expecting to follow on with corn. That seemed to be a common tactic. Elmwood farmer Ted Mottaz, president of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, told FarmWeekNow.com in a story published Monday that he too was starting on soybeans.

“We haven’t done any corn yet. We’re concentrating on beans,” he said last week. “Going through the countryside, you see a lot of fields where farmers started, pulled out, and went to another field. Corn is still holding quite a bit of moisture.”

According to this week’s Crop Progress report, just over a third of the Illinois corn crop was in as of Sunday, 36 percent. That was up from 23 percent the previous week, but still well behind the 80 percent of the crop that was in at this time last year, and just slightly more than half of the five-year average of 70 percent.

The late, slow, wet harvest has evoked memories of the 2009 harvest a decade ago.

“That has come up in conversations,” Mottaz said. “That was a difficult year.”

FarmWeekNow reported: “Harvest that year was even further behind than this season. Just 11 percent of corn and 13 percent of the soybean crop was harvested as of Oct. 19, 2009. This year, 23 percent of corn and 27 percent of soybeans were in the bin statewide as of Oct. 15, which was 36 and 28 points behind the average pace, respectively.”

Nationally, 46 percent of the soybean harvest was in, compared with 51 percent last year and the five-year average of 64 percent. Some 30 percent of the corn was in, compared with 48 percent last year, almost exactly the five-year average of 47 percent.

Some parts of northern Illinois were hit with an overnight freeze last week, but that was nothing compared to the hard freeze and accompanying snowstorm that hit the upper northwest part of the so-called Corn Belt, which according to FarmWeekNow “cut the growing season short” in some areas including parts of Iowa and Minnesota. FarmWeekNow reported, “A freeze typically does little damage to a crop if it’s mature.” As of Sunday, according to the Crop Progress report, 88 percent of the Illinois corn crop was mature.

Some 35 percent of the Illinois corn crop was rated in fair condition, with 39 percent very good and 7 percent excellent, while 13 percent was rated poor and another 6 percent very poor. Some 38 percent of Illinois soybeans were rated fair, with 37 percent very good and 7 percent excellent, while 11 percent were rated poor and another 7 percent very poor.

This year’s corn and soybeans have been on the comeback trail since planting was delayed almost statewide by heavy rains and flooding this spring.