VegetablesUS farms harvest pumpkins on more than 99,000 acres, led by Illinois
Pumpkins are grown in all 50 states on about 15,000 farms, and 85% of the harvested area serves the fresh and ornamental market, USDA's Economic Research Service says.
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Illinois
Vegetables
CropsInvasive Asian copperleaf weed confirmed in a second Illinois county
University of Illinois Extension has confirmed Asian copperleaf in Carroll County, a year after its first Illinois find in Stephenson County, and urges farmers to look for the weed after harvest.
Agribusiness
Illinois offers state funds to lure a new operator for shut Tyson beef plant at Joslin
Governor JB Pritzker has opened the Invest in Illinois Fund to prospective buyers of the former Tyson Foods beef plant at Joslin, whose closure last month cost nearly 2,500 jobs and removed a key cattle market for the state's 14,000 beef farms.
Crops
Apply 60% up front, sidedress 40%: Illinois advice for costlier nitrogen
With anhydrous ammonia averaging $1,057 a ton in early July, up almost a third on the year, University of Illinois researchers say timing, split application and the MRTN calculator matter more than ever.
Agribusiness
One good crop does not set a new rent: five factors for next season's farm leases
Farm manager Michael Lauher says 2026's extremes of flooding, heat and August rain make field-by-field judgement essential, that higher prices do not restore the margins that once justified aggressive rent rises, and that drainage deserves its own line in the lease.
EnvironmentBermuda High and Texas heat parked a front over Illinois and dropped a foot of rain
Nutrien's Eric Snodgrass explains the 8-16 August deluge that put 9 to 10 inches on Paxton, Danville and Bloomington-Normal: a Bermuda High fed Gulf moisture north while Texas heat pushed a stationary front into the Corn Belt, and low-lying fields lost crop to hypoxia.