Fall harvest nearly complete in central Illinois

PEORIA, Ill. - A successful harvest season is wrapping up in central Illinois as farmers finish gathering their corn and soybean crops from the fields.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that 94 percent of the state's corn and 95 percent of soybean harvest had been completed as of Sunday. Although prices have fallen about $2 per bushel for both corn and soybeans, experts and farmers alike agree that the yields have made this harvest a success, The (Peoria) Journal Star reported.

"This was a great year, one of the best on record with corn yields over 200 bushels an acre," Peoria County Farm Bureau manager Patrick Kirchhofer said.

The national yield average for corn is 173.4 bushels per acre, while the soybeans are at 47.5 bushels an acre, according to the federal agency.

"We were seeing yields of more than 70 bushels an acre in some soybean fields. You'd run into plants with the disease and the yield-per-acre would drop to 50 bushels or so. Normally, you'd be happy to get 50 bushels of soybeans in an acre," said Mike Hoeft, who farms in the Delavan area. "The yields may be the best I've ever had. Of course, prices are down on the Board of Trade."

Some farmers have been affected by a crop disease that has reduced yields in soybean fields across central Illinois.

"The corn has been consistently good. On the soybean side, results have been good but we've seen some sudden-death syndrome," said Mike Schachtrup, a Peoria County farmer who tends to 6,000 acres in several neighboring counties. "I think this area and Springfield became ground zero for a lot of the sudden-death. On some of the flat, black soil, I think it was a case of too much moisture."

Now that harvest season is nearly over, farmers in central Illinois are turning their focus to tillage work and fertilizing, according to Kirchhofer.