While the significant part of the corn and soybean harvest in Vermilion County looks to be done, there are some acres still waiting to close out the 2024 growing season. The Vermilion County Farm Bureau’s Tom Fricke says it’s not so much all the rain that’s the main worry right now, but the wind.
AUDIO: Certainly, once the weather breaks, they’ll get back at it. We were dry for so long. So it’s not going to take a long time for the fields to dry back out that they can get into. One of the things we’ll have concern on is heavy winds. So, the longer the crop stays in the field, wind damage could became more of a factor on maximizing the yield that’s there.
Farmers always have post-harvest field work that they want to complete before winter completely sets in. But Fricke says in some cases, especially land that will be growing soybeans in 2025, that may not be as big of a factor.
AUDIO: A lot of times, if you’re waiting to harvest corn; you’re going to be going in with soybeans after that. And a lot of our soybean acres in this area are no-tilled, so there might not be a lot of tillage work to be done on a corn field.
Fricke says, although it will be a while before official statewide numbers are out, it does indeed look like the 2024 harvest is coming in very strong, just like expected by many. Especially, he says, on the soybeans side of things. Fricke says a high yield will definitely help make up for lower prices.
