2015 Logan County Farm Outlook Magazine Lincoln Daily News.com March 26, 2015 31
On the other hand, corn that is
planted after a pervious corn
crop may be less resistant to
disease and more susceptible
to cob rot; as opposed to corn
planted after soybeans, that corn
may be more resistant.
Continuous corn planting also
carries the risk of yield drag as
the harvest numbers decrease
due to diminishing returns.
Soybeans, while still reduced in harvest numbers after
continuous planting, do not experience the same level
of loss at harvest.
Another factor to consider is the value of cash rent
The 2014 USDA report reveals that Logan County
had the highest cash rent in Illinois at $308 per non-
irrigated acre. Farmers paying higher cash rents to
landowners in past years continued growing corn to
earn a greater profit for themselves.
Soybeans, despite selling at higher prices, are not
subject to the same level of demand as corn, and
average yields are generally much lower.
Comparatively, corn is typically chosen over soybeans
as it offers broader marketability and its higher yields
sufficiently make up for corn’s lower price.
The strategy of continuous corn sounds counter-
productive when compared to the typical methods
of crop rotation. According to the 2012 crop
budget report provided by the University of Illinois
Agricultural Department, greater gross revenue will
result from the planting of soybeans after two years of
planting corn.
According to a five-year study conducted by the U of I
and published in 2013:
“The data for 2013 indicates that there was little if any
yield advantage or disadvantage of a higher percentage
of corn acres…
• higher percentages of corn production leads to
increased costs per acre for fertilizer, pesticides, and
seed as represented by the increasing disadvantage of
the higher corn percentages.
• Power and equipment cost exhibited this same
trend.”
The study concluded that the data (see table- provided
by the University of Illinois Ag Extension) for
2013 suggests that revenue was higher at the higher
percentages of corn acres, but there was a greater cost
to produce that increase.
Continued to page 32
