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Harvest right around the corner for central IL farmer

Central Illinois farmer Elliott Uphoff says corn harvest could begin as early as next week.

“That’s just depending on how much things dry with this heat coming. Then we’ve got some 3.1 beans and some 3.3’s that are starting to turn. So, possibly in about 3 weeks we’ll be cutting some soybeans.”

He says that is about a week ahead of average for their farm, but that’s mostly due to early planting.

“There’s going to be some pockets though that missed some very timely rains, so you might see some corn get harvested next week that’s drier than expected because it’s not very good.”

When it comes to yield predictions, he says beans are still a wild card.

“We’ve had some really nice rains in August, which tells me we definitely should be expecting 60 plus bushel beans, but I’m hopeful we could be near the 70 range.”

He says he is hopeful for a 220 bushels per acre average or higher for corn.  

Brownfield interviewed Uphoff during the 2023 Farm Progress Show in Decatur. He serves as a district director for the Illinois Soybean Association.