While most farmers are rolling with corn harvest, bean harvest is starting to pick up as well. As of September 28, 21% of the bean acres in the state have been harvested (USDA-NASS). Rains that hit the northern half of the state this week may have given farmers a short break but won’t keep them out of the field long.

With a majority of fields drying down, some may wonder why certain bean fields are still so green. Green bean fields at this stage are almost certainly double-crop fields, which are quickly catching up in maturity to full-season beans. The double-crop beans at the ISA Agronomy Farm in McLean County are currently at the R6 (full seed) growth stage.

The Soybean Production team wishes you all a safe harvest!

After a wet finish to last week and more systems moving through over the weekend, we have some very wet and saturated soils across northern Illinois. Corn and Soybeans continue to dry down, but that has slowed with the rain and cooler weather moving in. Any field work that would be happening this week will likely be delayed until next week, when fields and plant material dry down.

Corn is firing to varying degrees up the plant, largely depending on planting date after the wet spring delays we have had. I expect in the next week or so, to start to see the first fields being harvested.

Soybean fields have started to turn as well. Still large amounts of green in the plants, including stems on the further senesced fields. On top of that, the beans themselves will need a bit of extra time to dry out after all the rain this past week.

Disease incidence this season remains low, even after a cool and wet finish to the year. The most concerning note I have is an above average amount of ear rot in fields throughout the north, largely caused by the weather we have seen.

Its the calm before the storm, and its shaping up to be a busy October as always. Stay safe and have a happy harvest!

Corn harvest is in full swing, with yields generally good, but not as good as last year’s. Lodging and stalk quality issues are showing up in the May-planted corn fields, adding to this year’s harvest stress. The tip back of the ear’s kernels is very common across the area.
Harvesting of the early-maturity soybeans has begun. Soybean harvest is expected to resume as soon as weather conditions allow.

Sporadic harvest had slowly started in this region before rainfall stopped activities. Once field conditions improve, I expect the 2026 harvest to engage on a larger scale. Farmers are encouraged to take advantage of the lull to check fields and hybrids to determine harvest order. We have had reports on wind-blown and leaning and lodged corn. In several instances it appears to be hybrid specific. Most corn fields visited are at R6 or black layer and are somewhere between the upper teens and upper twenties in moisture content. There is more variation between soy fields, although most are R7 or beginning maturity. At this stage plants show at least one pod exhibiting its normal color. Mature pod color indicates that the seed is finished accumulating dry matter and increasing in weight. As seeds transition from green to yellow, they are about 60% moisture. R8 or full maturity soy is indicated when 95% of the pods have reached their mature color.

It looks like harvest had just gotten started in northern Vermilion County before the rain put a halt to any field activity. As of Tuesday (9/22) this week, soils were still a bit wet for equipment traffic without risking some rutting and compaction issues. But drier conditions this week have likely allowed some in the region to restart their harvest in the past day or so. Most of the corn fields surveyed are at black layer and ready for harvest. I only found a couple localized areas in the northern half of the county with lodging issues, but stalk rots are still a concern, along with ear rots, which I found with moderate prevalence in a couple fields. A small percentage of the soybean fields have also reached harvestable maturity, although I did not see any soybean fields cut at the time of my survey. Most fields are still holding on to some leaves and are generally somewhere in the middle of beginning and full maturity.

This is our last scheduled crop report of the season. Good luck to all with harvest, and stay safe out there.

Rain is expected for Northeast Illinois this week, if it materializes it will provide needed moisture. Its benefit to most crops at this stage is uncertain, but we will decrease the fire risk associated with starting harvest when crops are tinder dry. It’s becoming a challenge to share information on the 2026 crop; we are so close to harvest most are in a wait and see attitude. Several late season observations include a very rapid dry down for the corn crop. Moisture levels for hand shelled samples for 105-day (2550 GDU’s) and 108-day (2580 GDU’s) hybrids were 24.8% and 18.8% respectively. As mentioned in previous reports, the loss of color and drydown of the corn crops in this region has been dramatic. When hand shelling corn kernels that did not fill (aborted) on the ear were noticeable. Kernel abortion is when a kernel is successfully pollinated, starts to form but stops developing and shrivels because the plant cannot supply needed photosynthate during early grain fill. This is often due to environmental stress. Of note in some soy fields is the variation of plants reaching maturity. This too can likely be attributed to environmental stress during the growing season. An example is areas that were temporarily ponded or saturated are lagging behind other parts of the field.

Harvest is underway in Douglas County. During my survey Tuesday (9/15) morning, I saw both corn and soybean fields being harvested as well as a handful of others that had recently been harvested, or at least “opened up”. Most corn fields visited are at black layer (R6) or close to it, with the exception of a couple fields that were presumably planted late due to early season wet conditions. Soybean growth stage across the county showed a bit more of a range, with the majority of fields at beginning maturity (R7) or beyond, but a fair number still mostly green across the canopy. Those soybeans that are still holding on to some green leaves are turning quickly as soil moisture continues to decrease in the area with warm temps and minimal rainfall. As I write this on Wednesday (9/16), we did catch some rain in the area from the south edge of a storm system that moved through this morning. Available reports from Douglas County show a range of ~0.1-0.8″ in accumulation from that storm, so probably not enough to keep people out of the fields too long, depending on how the scattered storms in the forecast for the rest of the week play out.

I haven’t made a report for several weeks as I’ve been on paternity leave and up to my elbows in diapers and bottles for my twin infants. Until this last week my windshield surveys had me thinking that the crop was still doing pretty well despite the hot dry weather over the last two months. I had seen a few patches of stressed plants in pockets of fields with thinner soils, or regions that missed a rain, but overall the crop didn’t seem too visibly stressed. In the last week (prior to the rains that came through on 9/10/26) I started noticing more and larger areas of visible stress. When I walked out in some late planted and double crop beans that from the road, looked healthy; I was surprised at how many pods contain only one or two developing beans. Clearly the hot dry weather was impacting fertilization and seed set more than I realized. A lot of these later planted fields do have a number of very small pods that may still set. Hopefully the rains this week help prevent them from aborting and at least fill the pods we do have out there.

I saw my first combine shelling corn in Marion county on August 27th. I still have only seen that one farm shelling and drying corn, everyone else seems to be letting the triple index heat dry their corn down for now. The hot, dry weather has had all corn in the area at black layer and drying for a while, regardless of how late it was planted. From what I’ve seen, it looks like corn planted from April to mid May had decent fill before being forced into senescence. Ear size may not be anything to write home about, but it seems there’s more grain out there than 2025 in this area (which is a low bar). Fingers crossed as combines start to get rolling.

For many Labor Day weekend is considered the unofficial end of summer. For the ag community in Northeast Illinois the end of summer is the Sandwich Fair, held annually the week following Labor Day. Yesterday I had the opportunity to judge commercial corn entries at the Horticulture and Crops barn at the fair, Using the size and kernel number of ears as an indicator, it has been a good growing season. In the field, both corn and soy are nearing maturity, in most fields I observed it appears corn is winning the race. Most in this region will likely start the 2026 harvest in corn before soy. As farmers prepare for the harvest this is an ideal time to check corn fields for any standability issues. This can be accomplished by walking the field or by use of a drone. With this knowledge, field harvest order can be adjusted accordingly. With the variability we have seen within fields this year it will be important to check combine settings often during crop harvest.

Cooler and wet conditions have moved in across northern Illinois. Light rain and heavy morning dews have propagated some late season disease in both corn and soybeans as we start to enter wide-scale senescence and harvest.

Soybeans in McHenry and Dekalb counties are producing large amounts of pods, as well as filling those pods very well. I expect many soybean fields to have high yields. I have seen mostly foliar late season diseases such as SDS and septoria leaf spot, but nothing of major concern that will slow down soybean pod fill. Fields with earlier maturities are well into senescence as well.

Corn is finally starting to show some disease with the prolonged leaf tissue wetness, and lower temperatures that we have seen in September. Tar spot, northern corn leaf blight, and even some late season southern rust are being found in fields. Many corn fields are starting to fire and die down, as well as hitting black layer, or physiological plant death. Disease at this point will mostly go on to determine inoculum load for next season, as well as assist in drying down plant material for harvest.

Overall, we are steadily marching towards harvest, and hoping for some great drying and harvest weather to finish out the season