The final USDA crop progress report on this year’s harvest released last week showed that 95 percent of the nation’s corn crop was finally harvested, just a few days before Christmas. Illinois was on par with the national total, reporting five percent of the crop left in the field.

I saw some of that corn this week during a visit to northern Illinois, around Kankakee and St. Anne. Some of it is still standing well, but some of it got hit pretty hard by a storm that blew in last week with up to 40 mile an hour winds.

These photos are two different fields I saw along the road between Cullom and St. Anne that showed a pretty stark contrast in standability. No idea of who the farmers are who own those fields, what varieties they planted or plant health products they used, but I’d say the farmer with the field in the left photo has a better chance of salvaging a decent crop, whenever that may be.

The states still running the farthest behind in corn harvest are North and South Dakota and Wisconsin. All three were still below 90 percent complete in the final USDA report last week. That final report, by the way, was two weeks later than USDA ever issued fall harvest progress reports.