Illinois farmers enjoy record harvest

Earl Williams has heard the joke about how farmers always find a reason to complain. But like many Midwest farmers, the northern Illinois grower of corn and soybeans has no gripes this year.

"It's probably the best corn crop I've ever had," Williams, 57, said from his land near Rockford, where yields in some fields almost doubled over last year.

Friendly weather that included 14 inches of crop-quenching August rain propelled Williams to banner yields -- 140 to 205 bushels per acre over his roughly 650 acres of corn, complemented by yields of 38 to 61 bushels per acres over about 500 soybean acres.

Such testimonials are common throughout the nation's Corn Belt, where farmers who converted soybean acreage into cornfields to meet expected demand from would-be ethanol plants were rewarded with big-time harvests and relatively high prices.

Illinois corn growers reaped 2.31 billion bushels, 27 percent more than last year, from more than 13 million acres, nearly 2 million acres more than 2006, the Illinois Farm Bureau's John Hawkins said. The average yield of 178 bushels per acre is the second-biggest ever in the state, where records date to 1866, Hawkins said.

The corn harvest appears equally robust across the country. Though official numbers won't come until January, Hawkins said, estimates are U.S. corn growers produced a record 13.2 billion bushels of corn, one-fourth more than last year. The roughly 86 million acres of harvested cornfields -- the most since 1933 -- had an average yield of 153 bushels, falling short of the 2004 record of 161 bushels.

According to U.S. Agriculture Department estimates, North Dakota's corn production will be 279 million bushels and Nebraska's 1.5 billion bushels -- both records. Iowa farmers reportedly harvested a record 2.44 billion bushels of corn from roughly 14 million acres.

Illinois soybean growers turned out nearly 361 million bushels, down 25 percent from a year ago, Hawkins said. U.S. farmers brought in 2.6 billion bushels from 62.8 million acres of soybeans, averaging 41.3 bushels per acre.

Favorable pricing helped. Corn growers who earned $2.20 to $2.40 a bushel this time last year -- depressed prices lingering from the record crop of 2004 -- now can get $3.40 to $3.60.

The cash price for soybeans is between $9.40 and, on some days, pushing $10 a bushel.