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Illinois farmer says his goal is to do better every year

Northern Illinois farmer Steve Pitstick says his goal with every crop is to do a little better than the year before.   “Whether it’s selling price or average yield, we’re trying to increase it,” he says.

He tells Brownfield after a couple of really volatile years in the ag economy, he’s optimistic heading into the 2024 growing season. “Input prices have stabilized pretty much after the post-COVID work through,” he says.  “We’re in a pretty good spot. You know, prices go up and down. I’ve done this for a long time and when they go down, they’ll go back up and when they’re high, they’ll go down. So we just kind of play along.”

Pitstick says farming has seen some drastic changes in the last 50 years. “An FFA project in 1973, I had three acres of soybeans and they’re made 27 bushels an acre,” he says. “We’ve come a long way from.  My herbicide bill was only $6.00 an acre. It was quite intriguing.”

Pitstick raises corn and soybeans near Maple Park (about an hour west of downtown Chicago).