According to the USDA, corn and soybean conditions in Illinois are not as good as the last two years.
The USDA NASS site has lots of interesting agricultural data, if you know where to look. One of the great reports they put out every week are the crop conditions in graphical form. Just click on a state and go.
In this first graph, you can see the corn crop conditions compared to earlier years. The percent in good to excellent for 2015 is less than 2013 and 2014. It is a little better than 2011, which was hot and dry in places. It was better than 2012 when we had the full blown drought. The second panel shows you the crop conditions in all categories throughout the 2015 growing season. And finally you can see the crop stages this year, compared to last year and the 5-year average.
Here is the same thing for soybeans. The percent in good to excellent this year is down compared to the last three years. Like corn, last year probably wins the award for the most consistent soybean conditions throughout the growing season. On the other hand, notice how the dismal conditions rebounded a little in August and September of 2012 as the rains finally returned to Illinois that year.
