DECATUR - Farmer Emmett Sefton almost always has his eye toward his rain gauge, recording the amount that has fallen.

Knowing exactly how much rain has fallen this year, Sefton feels fortunate his crops grew as well as they did.

"We've had 54 inches of rain since Jan. 1," said Sefton, who tends several fields near Dalton City. "This is the most we've ever had. We can't do anything about the weather. We've done a great job considering."

Sefton and most other area farmers have wrapped up the fall harvest after a long and challenging growing season. What they've produced depends on how much damage the record amount of rain has done and where it fell.

Many crops had to be replanted after heavy rain in the spring.

Corn yields in Central Illinois are estimated to reach 195 bushels per acre this year, ahead of the 193 bushel mark reached in 2007. Soybeans yields are down slightly to 51 bushels per acre compared to 52 last year.

"The corn was probably some of the best corn we've ever had," Macon County farmer David Brix said. "Definitely not having that early frost really helped them beans, or they would have been toast a long time ago."

While it didn't freeze until later in the fall, the temperature didn't warm up to help corn dry as much as it needed to, Shelby County farmer Troy Uphoff said.

Uphoff described the yields he's found as being just average at best.

"Everything got delayed a little bit," Uphoff said. "The crop didn't mature as quickly as it normally does. We never had a hot September to dry things down right."

The number one concern of farmers right now is falling commodity prices and high input costs looking ahead to next year.

"We've got some real concern about that right now," Uphoff said. "Profitability is a major concern for 2009 looking forward."

When prices were at record highs earlier this summer, potential yields weren't looking promising, Brix said.

"I wasn't really optimistic," Brix said. "If I would have been optimistic, it would have been a good year. I would have sold more of it for the high price. I'm not looking a lot forward to next year unless things change."

The last few years, it's rained at the right times and growing was extreme in a positive way, said Dave Carr, who farms near Macon. He said farmers are hoping prices will recover to be able to at least break even.

This year shows how dependent farmers are on favorable rain and temperatures, he said.

"No matter what we do with crop genetics and everything," Carr said, "it still comes down to weather."

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