Oct 31 | Weather Update and Market Review
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](https://farmdoc.illinois.edu/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
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CLIMATE REVIEW & WEATHER FORECAST
We had a beautiful fall weather week to wrap up the month of October. Average temperatures this week ranged from the mid-40s to the high 50s, between 1 and 3 degrees below normal. Many parts of the state saw nighttime lows dip well below freezing, including 24 degrees in Mt Carroll and Aurora. However, the recent cool weather was not enough to offset the warm start to the month, meaning that October ends between 3 and 6 degrees warmer than normal across Illinois.
by Trent Ford, State Climatologist
ISWS PRI University of Illinois
A large disturbance moved through the mid-part of the country last weekend and early this week, bringing rain to most of the southern half of the state. 7-day totals ranged from virtually 0 in the Chicagoland area to nearly 4 inches in far southern Illinois. The wet weather was par for the course in southern Illinois, which has been 1 to 5 inches wetter than normal in the month of October. In contrast, drier weather in October has only added to precipitation deficits across central and northern Illinois. Most of the state north of Interstate 70 was 1 to 2 inches drier than normal for the month of October, and the U.S. Drought Monitor maintains moderate to severe drought for most of that area, and extreme drought in east-central Illinois. Even though October was not nearly as dry as September in drought areas, we will need substantially wetter weather the rest of this year and early next year to make real improvements in our drought.
Looking ahead, we see a fairly cool weekend with highs in the 50s and lows well into the low 30s and high 20s. Next week will bring a modest warm up as most places see highs in the mid to upper 60s. Precipitation will be hard to come by next week, with only far southern Illinois expected to pick up anything measurable. Meanwhile, the second full week of November also shows signs of warmer and drier than normal weather statewide. Lastly, NOAA released its official winter outlook last week. It shows best chances of a wetter than normal winter, with equal chances of warmer or cooler than normal temperatures. The wetter winter signal is at least a good sign as we look to winter to help make up for the lack of fall precipitation.
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PUBLIC RADIO FOR THE FARMING WORLD
WILLAg.org radio programming for the work week ending October 31, 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 Matt Bennett and Curt Kimmel of AgMarket.net and Dave Chatterton from Strategic Farm Marketing.
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.