Luverne, Minn., strip-tillers Shawn and Becky Feikema are happy with their corn yields as harvest wraps up, but believe there's room for improvement heading into 2026.

They shared how things went this fall in an article for Tri-State Neighbor. The big takeaway? While yields were good, they could've been better if not for summer heat and disease.

"We have a couple of theories about why the yield wasn’t quite where it could have been. For one, we did not have super emergence on some fields. We do not know why, as conditions were great.

"We also had more disease pressure this year than we have in previous years, and even though we did apply a fungicide, it might not have been at the right time or we could have benefited from a second application.

"I recently read about how night time low temperatures above 70 degrees during grain fill can have a 1% per day yield loss. I went back and looked at weather data from July and August, and we had 18 nights where the lows were above 70 degrees. So on a field with 300-bushel-per-acre-potential, that calculates to a 54 bushel per acre loss. Those things combined could add up to significant effects on yield."

The Feikemas are now in the process of planting cereal rye and making strips for next year's crop. After that, they'll enter what they call the "re-entry period."

"It’s quite a transition from going all out for two and a half months, consumed with nothing but harvest, to actually having time to think about other things. It takes a while for some to relearn how to have a life outside the combine, tractor or truck."

Click here to read more about the Feikemas' harvest season in the Tri-State Neighbor.