The 2025 Southwest Michigan Field Crops Season in Review

By Nicolle Ritchie and Angie Gradiz

It’s important to keep good records of the different challenges and opportunities from each growing season. Records serve as a reference for future seasons and can help you learn from past mistakes (or wins), adapt and respond to future challenges. This article provides an overview of findings in southwest Michigan. Overall, 2025 had few pest challenges and mostly weather-related challenges. In many cases, you may have had a different experience, pressure or timing than those mentioned below. If so, note that and keep it in your records to help you respond to future crop challenges.

Weather

The 2025 season was considerably warmer and drier than normal. Potatoes started planting in mid-March. Early-season cool temperatures benefited potatoes and winter wheat but delayed corn and soybean planting. Corn particularly was stunted, yellow and delayed from the early-season cool temperatures and cloudy days exacerbated by smoke from Canadian wildfires. Between rain and cool weather, planting didn’t wrap up until around the middle of June.

Mid-June brought storms in much of the region and high temperatures, which continued almost all season long. July and August were especially hot, with multiple weeks of heat indexes in the nineties and beyond. The hot temperatures and high humidity stressed crops and people alike. Some areas of southwest Michigan did not receive any significant precipitation between May and August, and crops were under considerable drought stress. Between the heat and the drought, corn pollination was affected in many fields throughout the region.