The home stretch is coming for Illinois farmers. Corn and soybeans are making progress and looking good.
“Last week was a little cooler than normal,” says Mark Schleusener, state statistician for the USDA. “We were four degrees below normal for the week. The average rainfall was a little bit below average for the week. It’s been a while since we’ve had one of those; just over one-half of an inch, and it was two-tenths of an inch below normal.”
Eighty-three percent of corn and 76 percent of soybeans are in good or excellent condition. The corn harvest advanced to 6 percent, still behind the average, but soybeans are 45 percent dropping leaves, about even with the long-term average.