Illinois corn and soybean production drops in 2019

Illinois corn, soybean production drops by roughly 20 percent

Record-wet planting season caused dramatic decrease in crop yields

Story by BEN OR NER Capitol News Illin ois SPRINGFIELD — Production of Illinois’ two most valuable crops fell by roughly one-fifth last year, according to final crop yield numbers released in January by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Corn and soybean growers saw production drop 18.6 percent and 20.4 percent, respectively, compared to 2018.

Farmers harvested just over 1.8 billion bushels of corn, down from more than 2.2 billion the year before. Soybean production decreased from around 667 million bushels to just over 532 million.

2019 was the worst year for corn since 2012, when farmers produced about 1.3 billion bushels. Soybean production had its worst year since 2013, which saw 461 million bushels.

Yield per acre was down 14 percent for corn at 180 bushels and 15 percent for soybeans at 54 bushels. That’s the lowest for corn since 2015 and the lowest for soybeans since 2013.

Wetter-than-normal planting and growing conditions are to blame for last year’s stunted production, said Mike Doherty, senior economist at the Illinois Farm Bureau in Bloomington.

“We had the latest-planted corn crop at least in my history of 30 years as an ag economist here” because of record-breaking spring rain, Doherty said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

January through June was the wettest first six months on record in Illinois, according to the state climatologist’s office.

In April, the month when farmers begin to plant corn and soybeans, less

than a week was suitable for planting. Illinois then saw its third-wettest May and wettest June in state history, forcing many farmers to plant most of their crop in the summer.

“Just about every time these farmers were turning around, they were being hammered with the worst field conditions that they had seen,” Doherty said. Record spring rain and periods of untimely rain during the fall harvest season forced late harvests across the state. Only 93 percent of Illinois’ corn crop was harvested by the end of November, according to USDA figures, the lowest total in a decade.

“It was probably one of the most stressful growing seasons that most farmers can probably remember,” said state Rep. Dan Swanson, R-Alpha.

Swanson grows about 1,600 acres of corn and soybeans on his farm in western Illinois.

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