General Comments
We are Verdova, and we strive to help growers generate value from their on-farm data. If you are unfamiliar with Verdova, Verdova is likely the data partner for a program you have participated in.
We share harvest reports each year to give growers meaningful insights from the data that we collect across our network. If this is your first Verdova Harvest Report, welcome! We hope that you find the data both interesting and helpful for your operation.
Consistent with prior years, the analysis emphasizes the I-States (Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana), which represent approximately two-thirds of the acres in our network. Data from other regions are also included where they provide meaningful insights.
This is the first of the 2025 harvest reports. Please feel free to share this link and reference this data as you see fit.
What has Verdova been up to?
The past year, we have been busy building out our grower-facing platform, improving our data pipeline, expanding our work as a data partner for Carbon Intensity and Pay-for-Performance programs, and exploring new opportunities to help growers get more value from their data.
If you're a grower and want to learn more about Verdova or connect with our team, we'd love to hear from you at success@verdova.com.
If you're a business currently partnering with Verdova or interested in exploring a partnership, please contact us at success@verdova.com or call Clay Sellmeyer (217) 993-1256.
Harvest comment from Bill Simmons
Bill is an agronomist
and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois.
Harvest progress is running a bit behind last year: In general, excellent
harvest conditions have prevailed across the I-states and beyond despite some recent spotty
shower activity. Last year (2024) stood out as one of the earliest harvest completion years
so we are ahead of the 3-yr average but behind last year's progress. Delayed planting due to
wet conditions is one contributing factor and delayed maturity in soybeans is another. Some
producers are reporting green stem issues that are delaying their harvest start dates. A
third often overlooked factor is that with excellent dry-down conditions and good stalk
integrity producers may take advantage of field dry-down avoiding panic driven harvest ahead
of big weather systems. The next 10-days forecast shows seasonable temperatures and little
to no rain which should lead to a solid finish to the harvest season.
Soybean yields are like last year: With 80% of the I-states soybean yields
reported the top ten market share brands that comprise 77% of the total soybean market are
averaging 74.7 bu/acre which is running slightly below comparable harvest figures for 2023
and virtually identical to 2024 (74.5 bu/acre). These results may change slightly as the
last 20% of the crop is harvested. Yields may have exceeded expectations in some locations
given that rainfall in the last 3 months prior to harvest was typically well below average.
My thought is that some of our deeper, high organic matter soils may have stored enough
plant-available water to prevent severe yield loss.
Corn yields are also looking similar to last year: Corn harvest in the I-states
is about 68% complete with a weighted yield of the top eight market share brands (comprising 85%
of the corn seed market) averaging 236.4 bu/acre. These yields are running only about 2 bushels
behind last year's results at a similar time (238.1 bu/acre). I will dig into more analysis in
future harvest reports when we have the complete picture of the 2025 yield data. My suspicion
is that we will see some correlation between rainfall around pollination and of course soil-quality
and depth. The early and timely planted corn may have accumulated enough photosynthate prior to
the regional dry down to make a decent yield.
