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Dry weather speeds up harvest pace in western and central Illinois

Two Illinois farmers say the end of their 2025 harvest is in sight.

Christian County farmer Ken Franklin says he’s two-thirds complete.

“We got our beans done.”  He says, “Happy to be back in corn. Yields are average, maybe a tick above or below, depending on where you’re at in the field.”

He says the results are disappointing from where the crop started.

“We had a record crop out here, probably until about the middle to later part of August.”  He says, “Just to see your crop dwindle away, hoping for the next rain for two months. It was just, I don’t know, it’s hard to look at.”

AUDIO: Ken Franklin – Illinois farmer

Brady Holst grows row crops in Hancock County and tells Brownfield he has about a week and a half to go.

“Beans have been pretty good.”  He says, “They were really dry to start, but the humidity has kind of come back in the area, and really, we got a lot of the corn out before that started. The yields on both were 10 to 15% above average.”

Both say harvest is progressing rapidly thanks to the continued dry weather.  Holst says his pace is about a week ahead of normal.

“It dried down a lot faster, so then we got to move through it pretty quick because the dryers weren’t holding us up and waiting.”  He says, “We could get a lot more done in the day because they were dried out so quick.”

The USDA’s weekly harvest progress reports have been delayed indefinitely by the partial shutdown of the federal government.

AUDIO: Brady Holst – Illinois farmer