Illinois Crop Update – September 12, 2025
Russ Higgins – Commercial Agriculture Educator
Grundy County
Soil Conditions: Moderately Dry (soil is dry, plants may be browning or stressed, water bodies are low)
Harvest is on the horizon, maturity and drydown will likely be expedited with the return of forecast warmer temperatures. Looking back 150-170 days and evaluating the current growing season, most crop stressors were environmental (dry or drought conditions) or related to plant disease (primarily in the corn crop). Recent field surveys have shared expected higher yields for fields that were the recipient of isolated or intermittent rainfall or those having soils with greater water holding capacity. Soon combines will be rolling and the true impact of the growing season challenges will be known. Encouraging all to prepare for a safe harvest season.
Reagan Tibbs – Commercial Agriculture Educator
Logan County
Soil Condition: Moderately Dry (soil is dry, plants may be browning or stressed, water bodies are low)
Harvest has officially begun in Logan County, with some corn fields being harvested starting earlier this week. A lack of significant rainfall, combined with the high daily temperatures over the last couple of days, have helped to push plants to harvest. There are some corn and soybean fields that are still too green to harvest, so it will remain to see how the forecasted high temperatures over the weekend will impact their readiness for harvest.
Doug Gucker – Local Food Systems and Small Farms Educator
Dewitt, Macon, and Piatt County
Soil Conditions: Severely Dry (soil is very dry, water bodies are very low, vegetation is stressed)
All of my 3-county area is in some form of drought, with part of it in “D2, Severe Drought”. Crops are maturing rapidly. Due to environmental stress, drought, corn is showing top die-back and firing leaves up to or near the ear. Soybean fields are quickly maturing with the upper node or nodes of pods having 2 seeds instead of 3.
Talon Becker – Commercial Agriculture Specialist
Champaign County
Soil Condition: Moderately Dry (soil is dry, plants may be browning or stressed, water bodies are low)
With only about an inch of rain over the past 30 days from a single event, the crop is drying down quickly in northern Champaign County. Corn fields surveyed were generally at R6 “black layer” but are still a little way from harvestable. Most fields are still showing green leaf tissue above the ear leaf, but senescence will likely progress quickly with some warmer weather in the forecast and minimal chances for rain at this time. Harvest operations were taking place in a couple seed corn fields I drove by, but I didn’t see any combines rolling in production fields quite yet. Some soybean fields are at R8 “full maturity” and will likely be ready for harvest any day now, while others are still in the late R6 “full seed” stage, still green throughout much of the canopy. The couple double-crop soybean fields I visited were at R5 “beginning seed” but may struggle to fill those pods with the lack of available soil moisture.
