Expectations for the west central Illinois crop were mixed heading into the 2025 harvest. Warren County farmer Jared Kunkle shares that he wasn’t sure what to expect heading into the field after hearing discussions of growing disease pressure and early dying fields.
“I wasn’t so sure what we would find in corn. I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Been very happy, so far, with the yields that I’ve got,” shares Kunkle. “We had some that were drier than we expected, but also at the same time, we had some that kind of stayed green and were able to get in the soybean fields to start cutting those instead of staying in wetter corn.”
Kunkle adds that this year, he did notice increased cases of southern rust in fields.
“We don’t usually get it this extreme in this area, but it’s kind of interesting,” shares Kunkle, “you’re going through the field, and all of a sudden, you look at your corn head and like a cylinder that should be shiny, and it looks a little bit rusty, you know, the just coming off the leaves.”
On the soybean side, Kunkle says the high temperatures have caused the crop to dry down fast.
