Pie charts highlight Wisconsin’s lightning-quick soybean harvest

It has been an early and fast-moving soybean harvest for Wisconsin. As of the latest USDA Crop Progress report released Oct. 15, the Badger State is over three weeks ahead of its progress from the 2023 soybean harvest. Here’s a look at the harvest season so far, according to agronomist feedback and pie chart comparisons.

Soybean harvest and yield

As of Oct. 13, Wisconsin has completed 83% of its soybean harvest. Based on data from the June Acreage Report, there are only 360,400 acres of soybeans left to harvest statewide. This mark is well ahead of the state’s five-year average of 43% at the same point in the harvest season. In 2023, Wisconsin completed 46% of its soybean harvest by Oct. 13. Wisconsin is the furthest ahead of its five-year average among the top 18 soybean-growing states — well ahead of neighboring Michigan, which is at 66% complete compared to a five-year average of 35%.

Syngenta agronomist Nick Groth said the southern half of Wisconsin is further along in the harvest and is nearly complete. Northern Wisconsin is further behind, but is still around halfway done. Groth said he is hearing that soybean yields in the state “are generally slightly below average,” with dry weather conditions late in the growing season primarily to blame — though some areas have it worse than others.

“Yields are extremely variable, with large swings in yields across relatively small geographies,” Groth said. “The north part of the state seems to be slightly more disappointed in their soybean yields than was initially expected, with some areas being consistently below average.”

Time for fieldwork and weather’s impact

Wisconsin had 6.4 days suitable for fieldwork for the week ending Oct. 13, USDA said. This was considerably up on the same week in 2023, when only 4.2 days were suitable for fieldwork. The number was slightly down from Oct. 6, 2024, from 6.8 out of 7 days. Wisconsin’s state-specific Crop Progress report cited a “killing frost” in northern Wisconsin as a potential reason. In total, though, dry weather continued to dominate the state and push harvest along. “It was a dry week, with good winds,” Groth said in his weather report.

Groth said the dry weather this season could result in “one of the earliest harvests we have ever seen, especially in the southwest part of the state, where it has been really dry over the last month.”

The most recent data from the Drought Monitor, released Oct. 17, has 100% of Wisconsin suffering from some form of drought or dry conditions. It has been a dramatic shift from as recently as July, when the entire state was drought-free. Over 63% of the state is in moderate drought or worse.

Rain could be on the way in the coming weeks, as the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC) has Wisconsin squarely in an area projected to have more precipitation than the average from Oct. 22 through Oct. 26.