MORTON, Ill. (WMBD/WYZZ) — With the harvest a little over halfway done, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its Illinois Crop Progress and Condition Report.
While the drought that affected central Illinois throughout the spring and summer months caused some sleepless nights, according to John Ackerman of Ackerman Farms, crop production seems to be in a good place.
56% of the corn crop and 60% of the soybean crop are in good or excellent condition. Over half of the corn and soybean crop in the state has also been harvested.
Ackerman Farms grows pumpkins as well, and Ackerman said those have done well too.
“We raise corn and beans out here as well, and they did surprisingly well despite the drought that we’ve been in, and the pumpkins also did amazingly well, we were very surprised at how well it came come harvest time,” he said.
Ackerman also explained that pumpkins tend to do well in dry conditions, so the drought didn’t impact the production too much.
“Pumpkins do like it dry, but within reason, so we got off to a little bit of a rough start but we came out of it great,” Ackerman said.
He also said that their sales are weather-dependent, but that they’ve had a lot of customers recently.
