Oct 24 | Climate Review & Weather Forecast
The 2025 Farm Assets Conference is scheduled for Friday, December 12 at the AgriCenter in Bloomington, Illinois. The doors open at 7:30 a.m. central. The program starts at 8:00 a.m. Registration for 2025 is $80 per person through noon December 8 and $100 thereafter. Media and Extension personnel may register for free.
CLICK TO REGISTER and for complete Farm Assets Conference details
You may also want to register for the 2025 Illinois Farm Economic Summits. Visit the IFES website for more details about these ag econ meetings in DeKalb, Peoria, and Mt. Vernon.
Contact Todd Gleason at tgleason@illinois.edu or (217) 333-9697 if you have questions.
—
LET’S TALK FUNDAMENTALS
Commodity Markets and Crop Budgets
Trade, Transportation, and the Global Grain Markets.
DEMAND ON THE HORIZON
Signs Point to a Bullish Biofuels Policy
BioManufacturing and the Future of Ag
Ag Policy Objectives and Prospects
SPREADSHEETS AND MUDDY BOOTS
Why you should use the N-Rate Calculator
Crop Sciences for the 2026 Growing Season
RESEARCH, OUTREACH, AND WORKING TOGETHER
Round Table with the Ag Leadership
—
This week marked a dramatic transition from what has been a very warm fall to something more Halloween-esque. Still, average temperatures this week ranged from the mid-50s to mid-60s, between 4 and 9 degrees above normal. A cold front moved through on Sunday and Monday, dropping temperatures closer to, if not slightly below, normal.
by Trent Ford, State Climatologist
ISWS PRI University of Illinois
The associated drop in humidity allowed nighttime low temperatures to dip into the 30s, and even a few in the upper 20s as most of the northern half of the state experienced its first fall freeze. Some of the more impressive nighttime lows this week included 28 degrees in Mt. Carroll, and 29 in Springfield. That said, the recent cool down is not enough to push the needle on fall temperatures to date, which have been 3 to 5 degrees above normal.
The same front that brought real fall to Illinois also brought some much-needed rain. 7-day totals ranged from around half an inch in western Illinois to over 5 inches in south-central Illinois. The inch to inch and a half of rain that fell in parts of east-central Illinois made for the wettest week in the region since late July. While the rain was greatly beneficial to tamping down fire risk and wetting the top 8-10” of the soil, it did very little to improve streamflow and reservoir and pond levels, especially in central Illinois. More rain, or snow, is needed over the next 4 to 6 months to recharge deeper soil and bring up water table levels to be ready for next growing season.
Looking ahead, next week looks to keep our cooler weather, with highs mostly in the mid to upper 50s and lows in the low 40s and mid to upper 30s. We will get our next chance of rain late weekend to early next week. 7-day forecasted totals range from around a quarter of an inch in far northern Illinois to possibly close to 2 inches in southeast Illinois. Farther out, the same seasonably cool weather looks to stick around thru at least the first full week of November, with best chances of below normal precipitation to start the final month of fall. Meanwhile, I’ll just throw it out there that we are only 20 to 30 days away from the average first measurable snowfall for most of the state north of Interstate 74.
—
PUBLIC RADIO FOR THE FARMING WORLD
WILLAg.org radio programming for the work week ending October 23, 2025
Commodity Week can be heard in the 2 o’clock hour central time on WILL AM580 or you may subscribe to it using the links in the player below. This week the panelists include Ellen Dearden from AgReview, Naomi Blohm of Total Farm Marketing, and Ted Seifried with Zaner Ag Hedge.
The Closing Market Report airs at 2:06 p.m. central daily on WILL AM580. It, too, is a podcast. Subscribe using the link in the player.