There's good news and bad news for local farmers this fall.

While corn yields are expected to be larger than usual, soybean yields are expected to be lower, said Lloyd Phipps, director of the Champaign Corn and Soybean Marketing Club. The national average of corn yields is projected to be 138.5 bushels-per-acre, up from 130 bushels-per-acre last year, he said.

Meanwhile, soybeans have dropped from 37.8 bushels-per-acre to 35 bushels-per-acre nationally. A bushel, the standard unit of measurement for crops, is 56 pounds for corn and 60 pounds for soybeans.

"It all comes down to the same thing every year — weather, weather, weather," said Robert Dunker, an agronomist in the University's Crop Sciences department. "Weather patterns affected soybeans more than corn because at the critical period, soybeans received below adequate rainfall, where as for corn we had adequate rainfall for the critical period and good rainfall for the rest of the season."

Dunker also said some pest problems in the north and fungal diseases in soybeans caused by early rainfall could also have affected the yields. However, Dunker was quick to note that the data was based on early yields, and later yields could be much better for soybeans.

Marla Todd, information director for the Champaign County Farm Bureau, said that the problem with soybean yield wasn't quantity, but quality.

"The big problem is the beans were smaller than usual. There's not fewer beans, just smaller beans," she said. " It's like if you fill up a bucket with baseballs and another bucket with pingpong balls. You won't fill as many buckets with the pingpong balls."

Phipps said the changes in crop yield are more pronounced locally with soybeans dropping from 50 bushels-per-acre to 35 bushels-per-acre.

"We have a very low yield on soybeans," he said. "The prices are going up. It could get up to $7 (a bushel). I'm very doubtful that we'll have $8 soybeans because of the low yield in the (United States)."

Todd explained how different conditions can cause a variety of yields.

"Conditions vary because maybe that rainstorm we got, someone else didn't get," she said.

Locally, Todd said farmers had already seen a surge in the price of soybeans. But Phipps looked at the economic impact on a global scale.

"Corn and soybeans are no longer U.S. markets: They're world markets," he said. "The world supply of corn is low, so the fact that we have a good yield in the (United States) is not a disaster for prices. We expect corn prices to drop, but after harvest, we should have a rebound."

Phipps wasn't as optimistic about soybeans, however.

Phipps explained that both North and South America are major corn and soybean producers, so any price changes would also depend on what happens in South America's growing season, which just began. Weather, disease or bug problems in South America could cause the soybean price to increase even more, and a good season could cause corn prices to continue decreasing.

Local farmers will be hit hard by lower soybean yields.

"It's going to hurt them economically. If you don't produce beans, you can't make up for it in price," said Phipps. "The high prices will help, but it won't fix it. The high yields on corn will also help, even though the price is low," he added.