Earl Williams has heard the joke about how farmers always find a reason to complain. But like many Midwest farmers, the northern Illinois grower of corn and soybeans has no gripes this year.

“It’s probably the best corn crop I’ve ever had,” Williams, 57, said from his land near Rockford, Ill., where yields in some fields almost doubled over last year.

Friendly weather that included 14 inches of crop-quenching August rain propelled Williams to banner yields – 140 to 205 bushels per acre over his roughly 650 acres of corn, complemented by yields of 38 to 61 bushels per acres over about 500 soybean acres.

Such testimonials are common throughout the nation’s Corn Belt, where farmers who converted soybean acreage into cornfields to meet expected demand from would-be ethanol plants were rewarded with big-time harvests and relatively high prices.

Illinois corn growers reaped 2.31 billion bushels, 27 percent more than last year, from more than 13 million acres, nearly 2 million acres more than 2006, the Illinois Farm Bureau’s John Hawkins said. The average yield of 178 bushels per acre is the second-biggest ever in the state, where records date to 1866, Hawkins said.

The corn harvest appears equally robust across the country. Though official numbers won’t come until January, Hawkins said, estimates are that U.S. corn growers produced a record 13.2 billion bushels of corn, one-fourth more than last year. The roughly 86 million acres of harvested cornfields – the most since 1933 – had an average yield of 153 bushels, falling short of the 2004 record of 161 bushels.

Other Corn Belt states are posting big numbers. According to U.S. Agriculture Department estimates, North Dakota’s corn production will be 279 million bushels and Nebraska’s 1.5 billion bushels – both records. Nebraska’s average yield is expected to be 162 bushels an acre, second only to 2004.

Iowa farmers reportedly harvested a record 2.44 billion bushels of corn from roughly 14 million acres, averaging 175 bushels an acre compared with 166 bushels an acre last year.

Overall soybean production fell, largely because of farmers’ shift to corn and the lack of rainfall at key times during the growing season, but prices remain strong.

Illinois soybean growers turned out nearly 361 million bushels, down 25 percent from a year ago, Hawkins said. The yield averaged 44 bushels over the state’s 8.2 million acres of soybeans, a slide from 48 bushels for the slightly more than 10 million acres last year.

U.S. farmers brought in 2.6 billion bushels from 62.8 million acres of soybeans, averaging 41.3 bushels per acre.

All told, “it was a very good year for all grains” when it came to pricing on everything from wheat to beans, said Rick Tolman, the National Corn Growers Association’s chief executive.

“It’s one of those rare times when most of (farmers’) options looked very good,” he said.

Favorable pricing helped. Corn growers who earned $2.20 to $2.40 a bushel this time last year – depressed prices lingering from the record crop of 2004 – now can get $3.40 to $3.60, in large part due to heavy demand for the grain to make ethanol fuel, Tolman said.

He said the cash price for soybeans is “quite strong right now,” between $9.40 and, on some days, pushing $10 a bushel, partly because of reduced soybean plantings this year and dry conditions that cut yields.

Around north-central Illinois town of Dwight, Art Bunting feels downright gleeful. The 54-year-old with three decades of farming under his belt typically has split his 2,000 acres between corn and soybeans, but last spring went with 1,200 acres of corn.

The outcome was “probably the best corn crop we’ve ever raised in our area,” generally 180 to 200 bushels per acre. The soybean yield came in at 50 to 55 bushels an acre.

“Yeah, we’re satisfied,” he said. “In our area, we had just about ideal weather, including rains when we needed it.”

In southern Illinois, Jeff Rennegarbe wasn’t as lucky. Citing “very, very dry” conditions on his Washington County farm near Nashville and elsewhere around that region, the 48-year-old farmer averaged about 155 bushels for each of his 1,300 acres of corn. His average yield for his 750 acres of soybeans was less than 30 bushels, likely because of a lack of rain late in the growing season when beans generally rely on the moisture to fill out.

Still, he submits, “it’s a passable crop with the prices the way they are now.”

But farmers agree that challenges loom, notably when it comes to absorbing rising costs of fertilizer, diesel fuel, chemicals and seed. Still, you won’t hear complaints from Floyd Streitmatter, a Peoria County, Ill., farmer beaming about his average of 220 to 225 bushels of corn from his 300 acres – and soybean yields averaging 55 bushels over another 200 acres.

“That was about as good a beans as I ever get,” he said. “It’s really exciting his year to be farming.”

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