West-Central Illinois Field Report

The past month and a half has been an interesting one.

Just before August, expectations for overall corn and soybean yield ran high—only to be dashed by a rather dry and exceptionally hot several-week period.

The crop rapidly went from feeling like it was cruising toward excellence to seeming as though it just wanted 2025 to be “over and done with.”

Recent soybean conversations have emphasized the lack of four-bean pods and a proliferation of two-bean pods—an unsettling observation that has increased fear beans will miss the mark for ’25.

Corn acres had a very similar look and feel for much of the past month, with a growing sentiment that warm nights shaved the top end off.

The earliest planted, shorter-maturity fields have begun to come off, with a few observations hinting at a likely overall theme.

First, in corn, this was a fungicide-response year. Twenty- to thirty-bushel yield benefits from applied foliar fungicide (versus no fungicide) are already being reported.

Second, southern rust will be a big story going into the winter of ’25/’26. Not only was it a major foliar disease in west-central Illinois, it also pushed north in stunning ways. Growers as far north as Madison, WI, will suffer rust yield losses this season. The experience strongly indicates that, more seasons than not, corn will be plagued by some kind of foliar fungal disease.

Third, soybean moistures are already hitting the single digits in some areas. This will cost weight—and slash income—at the elevator, but it also hints at another year of industry-wide seed quality issues. Soybean coats become too delicate at such moisture levels.

Finally, the 2025 season made for a very unusual Red Crown Rot story. Symptom development in historically RCR-prone areas was delayed and/or less extensive. New areas to the east of major RCR epicenters were much more problematic. Researchers and agronomists will spend much of the winter speculating why RCR played out the way it did.