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USDA: IL winter wheat harvest complete

The Illinois winter wheat harvest is complete.

Wayne County farmer Matt Rush says he was pleased with his crop.

“It was probably one of the better wheat crops that our farm’s ever had.”  He says, “It came off about 10 days earlier, which was good for the double crop bean planting. Get them beans in a little bit earlier.”

The USDA’s latest weekly crop progress and condition report shows wheat harvest is finished ahead of the five-year average.  Rush tells Brownfield…

“A little bit of talk of vomitoxin in the wheat, but for the overall I think most guys were pretty happy with the yield, but less impressed on the quality of wheat with the all the moisture that we had here late,” he says.

The state’s corn crop is looking good with 75% rated good to excellent.  Eighteen percent of the crop is in dough stage, compared to 11% normally.

Forty two percent of soybeans are setting pods, 21% ahead of average, with 76% of the crop in good to excellent condition.

Pasture and range conditions are 77% good to excellent, and the second cutting of alfalfa hay is 76% complete, with the third cutting at 7%. 

Only 16% percent of Illinois topsoil moistures are rated short or very short after statewide precipitation levels averaged eight tenths of an inch above normal the week ending July 21^st.

Photo: File photo