Harvest complete, work begins to market crops

ASHTON, Ill. — A favorable fall weather pattern provided the Henert family the ability to complete harvest and fall fieldwork in a timely manner.

The farmers completed their harvest on Oct. 21 and corn yields were similar to last year.

“Our corn yields were about one bushel less than last year, which is still really good, because the past two years the yields were 10 bushels better than the two years before that,” said William Henert, who farms together with his wife, Lea, and his parents, Nolan and Linda Henert.

The cornfield that was damaged by a wind-and-hail storm in July was in the bottom third of the farm’s corn yields.

“I had the same variety in a different field and it was in the top three of our varieties,” William said. “That’s the impact of the wind — it took that field from the top to the bottom for yield.”

Since weather has a big effect on yields, the farmer said, that’s the hardest part of choosing varieties each year.

“We’ve learned that choosing varieties is the most effect you have as farmer on the outcome,” William said. “There’s information to figure it out and it’s important to find someone you trust to bounce ideas off of.”

“Over the last five years, our corn yields have gone up almost 25 bushels and our bean yields are also increasing,” he said. “I’m not sure if it’s the weather, technology or us.”

“Soybeans are a relatively new crop for our operation,” Lea said. “We were 100% corn for a long time, and once we started growing seed corn, beans were added to the rotation.”

“Bean yields have gone up 6.5 bushels in the last five years,” William said. “I didn’t realize they were as good as they were this year — they were three bushels better than last year.”

This year was the largest number of soybean acres grown by the Lee County farmers in north-central Illinois.

“It was the best yield we’ve ever had on soybeans,” William said. “And if we would not have planted one of the varieties, we would have added another two bushels on the whole average.”

It was a cost-saving year for the Henerts to dry the corn coming out of the field.

“Our corn moisture averaged 16.7% moisture, so we were able to dry 34 bushels of corn per gallon of gas and that was very similar to 2018,” William said. “We usually average 10 to 12 bushels per gallon of gas to dry the corn.”

“When dad and mom built the grain system, that’s how they measured it to justify building it, by comparing what it would cost to take the crops to an elevator,” the farmer said.

“We started working on the grain system in August and we just got done last Wednesday, cleaning it up and putting things away,” he said. “That was three months of work, so there’s more costs than just the gas.”

The Henerts soil test their crop fields on a four-year rotation.

“The fields that are tested this year, we spread lime if it needs it, at a variable rate,” William said. “We do the spreading ourselves and we variable rate the potash and phosphate.”

For the following three years, most of the time the fields receive an application of a blend that includes potash, diammonium phosphate, or DAP, and sulfur.

All the corn-on-corn acres are disk chiseled in the fall.

“Most of the soybeans are going into seed corn, so that gets vertical tilled to mix the residue up and those fields will get a soil finisher in the spring,” William said. “We used to chisel all the acres, but the vertical tillage seems to work well and it doesn’t cost as much to run over the ground.”

About half of the soybeans stored on the farm have been sold and they are in the process of delivering those bushels to market.

“It has been a tough marketing year — typically there is a summer rally between April and June that we get something done, but it never came this year,” William said. “So, we did not sell any corn, but we’re optimistic on price improvement for the winter and going into next year, we just have to be patient.”

As they choose their hybrids and varieties for the 2026 growing season, the farmer said, they have some favorites they intend to plant.

“We’ll probably try a couple of new ones,” William said. “It seems like that is speeding up because we used to plant some varieties three or four years in a row.”

However, he said, “that goes back to why our corn yields are 25 bushels per acre better than they were five years ago.”

The fungicide program will continue in 2026.

“We are not even close to discussing if we are going to cut it,” William said. “I had one tiny area without a fungicide and it was probably a 30- to 40-bushel difference and I’ve talked to friends and it’s not even an argument that fungicides are beneficial.”

“The conversation we have around fungicides is which one to use, when to spray it and if the crop is going to get a second shot,” Lea said.

“People get hung up about spraying a fungicide or not, and it is important to just do it because you can’t predict when it’s going to be most beneficial,” William said.

“You can scout all summer and it looks really good and then you get to the first week of September and you can pick out the fields that did not have a fungicide, at least on corn,” he said. “Then you are happy you did it and wish you would have done a second application.”

Looking forward to the 2026 growing season, William said, it is rare to get any fieldwork done the last week of March.

“If it’s nice the first week of April, we’ll try to get the spraying done, get the 32% on, and if the ground is fit, start planting,” the farmer said.

“That’s what we’ve learned over the last 15 years — when the ground is fit in April, we start planting,” he said. “I’m sure it will get us one year with a late frost, but the benefits outweigh the risks when you look back over the data.”

The Henerts conduct some trials on their farm to evaluate if there are benefits to using different products.

“We haven’t found anything as beneficial as the fungicide program,” William said. “But we look at different things because there might something that will give us the next yield bump.”