Eighty bushel corn yields are not uncommon in Indiana this harvest, but so far in the Jay County area that’s about the best a farmer can expect. Jim Lochtefeld farms there and reports yields running in the zero to 80 range, but that’s the early corn and about the only corn harvested so far.
“Most of the zero to 80 was the stuff put in the first two to 2 ½ weeks of April. Anybody that planted after the third week of April, the corn is actually pretty good. It’s just like the late beans helped by rains. But we had everything done by the 15th of April so we’re anticipating around that 80 bushels an acre at the best probably.”
Lochtefeld has not been in the corn fields yet since he’s focused on cutting beans in between rains. And it is those fields providing all the good news with surprising yields.
“It seems to be going pretty good. The beans are yielding a lot better than we ever anticipated at 45-60 bushels an acre. So we’re really impressed with that. We were thinking they would be 35-40 but I’ve never seen beans so big. The size of the beans is just huge this year and I think that’s what’s really adding up.”
Late rains were the key to rejuvenated soybeans and in Jay County those rains started the first week of August.
“They all re-bloomed and put some more pods on, I noticed that. And then the rain really helped the size of the beans, and I think that’s because the beans were holding off and had that extra protein, and then when they had that rain they couldn’t pod a whole lot heavier so they just went and put bigger beans in them.”[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/10/Beans-great-in-Jay-County.mp3|titles=Beans great in Jay County]
Hear more in the HAT Field Update at the Agronomy page, sponsored by Advanced Ag Solutions.