The USDA has released its final 2022 yield and production figures for Marion County.
Corn yield was 194.3 bushels per acre with a total production of 14 million 903 thousand bushels. County farms planted 78,200 acres of corn and harvested 76,700 acres.
Soybean yield was 54.3 bushels per acre and a total production of 5,625,000 bushels. Farmers planted 104,000 acres of soybeans and harvested 103,600.
Those numbers are down from 2021 when the corn yield was 201.6 bushels per acre and total production topped 15.8-million bushels. Soybean yield was also higher in 2021 at 59.3 bushels per acre for a total yield of 5,966,000.
Even with the decline for 2021, Marion County Farm Bureau Manager Brad Conant says 2022 numbers represent a very good harvest.
“There are problem areas across the state and nation but I think agriculture in general in Marion County and the broader area had a very good production year. Prices support that. Looking back at 2022, the markets have taken a little reprieve in the past few days but overall the sentiment for 2022 is pretty positive.”
And what is the mood heading into the 2023 growing season?
“Some of the concerns that you are hearing in the ag communities is going to be the production costs. We are hearing that margins are potentially going to be tighter and weather always comes into the equation for what the planting and growing season will look like for 2023. If we can get a little rebound in some of the commodity prices looking forward for 2023 I think that will help some of that sentiment improve.”
While input costs like fertilizer are still much higher than they were in the past, they have dropped back down from the highs early in 2022.
Statewide, the average corn yield was 204 bushels per acre with a total production of nearly 2.3-billion bushels. The average statewide soybean yield was 63 bushels per acre with a total production of 677 million bushels.
Illinois had the top five counties in the US for corn production. McLean County with nearly 71 million bushels of corn led the state, followed by Iroquois, Livingston, LaSalle, and Champaign Counties. McLean also was the top county nationally for soybean production with 21.2 million bushels.
