As harvest comes to a close in most areas, it is time to reflect on the 2025 growing season and evaluate management decisions for the 2026 crop year.

AgriGold agronomist Kevin Gale covers the northern half of Illinois, where yields were fairly good but fell short of early season potential following early disease pressure and consistently high overnight temperatures.

“In the western side of the state, we had a lot of disease pressure come in early; aggressive diseases like tar spot and southern rust,” Gale told FarmWeek. “A lot of growers decided not to spray fungicide because commodity markets were low and I think this was definitely a learning year where fungicide proved to be a benefit.”

Gale said 2025 was also an example of the importance of fungicide timing.

“If we waited too long

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