Ogle County farmers are 80-85% done with harvest and are ahead of schedule due to recent dry conditions, Ogle County Farm Bureau Manager Ron Kern said Nov. 12.

With the exception of a possible field or two, all soybeans in the county have been harvested and “a few hundred acres” of corn remains for farmers with larger acreage, Kern said. Dry weather has seen farmers be able to be in the fields nearly each day since harvest’s start.

Harvest in the county will be wrapped up by Thanksgiving, and farmers will have the chance to do additional fall work, such as anhydrous ammonia application and fall tillage, Kern said.

“They’ve been pretty lucky with the pace they’ve been able to move at,” Kern said. “With yields, some farmers will say they had a great year with the corn or bean crops. Others will say it wasn’t what they were expecting or disappointing. Overall, the bean crop was just a little below average and the corn crop was average to just above average. In the spring we were so dry that we had germination issues with soybeans. The fields didn’t have the population that they should have had. They were good enough to not replant, but they’re not what farmers planted.”

Heading into the winter after another dry year, Kern said he’s hoping for moisture in the next five months to recharge soil before spring planting in April. Forecasters are calling for weather that’s warmer and wetter than normal with some excessive cold spells, Kern said.

Ogle County saw a number of field fires this fall with dry and windy conditions, which can allow fires to get out hand in “the blink of an eye,” Kern said.

“Hopefully in most instances farmers are carrying fire extinguishers with them and can get the fire suppressed before it gets out of control,” Kern said. “There are things you can do to prevent fires, like keeping shafts clear and keeping engine compartments clean. But if something like a bearing inside the combine starts going out and heats up and sparks ignite something around it, there’s only so much you can do.”

Amid the White House’s tariffs, Ogle County farmers have seen the impacts of Argentina and Brazil selling more soybeans to China, which previously imported more beans from the U.S. South America has overtaken the U.S. as the top global exporter of soybeans, leaving American farmers with lower prices and uncertainty where soybeans will end up.

The U.S. has started to sell more soybeans to other countries that previously imported from Argentina and Brazil, but the China gap hasn’t been made up, Kern said.

“China is a huge market and a market we can’t afford to lose, and unfortunately we seem to be losing it quite well these days,” Kern said. “Once you lose a market, it’s extraordinarily hard to get it back later on. Once China finds they can get soybeans cheaper in Argentina and Brazil, suddenly the U.S. doesn’t become the preferred exporter. The good thing is that the U.S. is still king in the world’s corn export market. We at least have that. Our farmers are seeing the impact of the soybean trade. If China placed a 12 million bushel soybean order tomorrow, it would impact prices for U.S. farmers significantly, probably enough that it might turn a loss into a profit.”

There has been talk of federal subsidies for U.S. soybean farmers due to the tariff impacts, but that isn’t the solution farmers prefer, Kern said.

“That would help farmers to at least keep from tanking. But we don’t want subsidies,” Kern said. “We’ve spent a lot of decades building up our market. We want to market, export and use the grain we produce. We don’t want somebody to cut us a check just because the grain is piled up sitting around somewhere because it can’t go anywhere. If Uncle Sam wants to send farmers a check to help keep farms operating, they’re not going to complain. But in the long run, I’d much rather have that market than that check.”

The wait is still ongoing for a new federal Farm Bill. The current Farm Bill, passed in 2018, has been extended for a year twice, most recently in December. The federal Farm Bill allocates funding for crop insurance, disaster assistance and conservation programs for farmers.

Kern said he expects the new Farm Bill delay to drag on for “at least another couple years.” He hopes it’s resolved soon with measures in place that reflect modern agriculture to help farmers.

Due to issues of tariffs, markets, input costs and weather, Kern called the 2025 agricultural year in Ogle County a “rollercoaster.” He has his wishlist in place for 2026.

“Give me some decent moisture to recharge soil coming into the spring,” Kern said. “Solve this tariff issue and get serious about writing a new Farm Bill, and I will go to sleep at night and rest very well.”