“The southwestern part of the state has definitely been hit harder and there’s kind of a diagonal line all the way up towards the very northeastern corner of the state. Yields are varying so much just depending on organic matter and soil types are really driving what the field averages are going to be. Areas to the north that have caught some of the later rains and also may have planted a little bit later seem to be pulling in some higher yields than the late March to early April planted corn.”
Gault said where there are pockets of very good corn yields, the results actually rival a normal year.
“It may be an area about 5 miles by 5 miles that happened to catch some timely rain to help cool that plant during pollination and to have good grain fill. So there are a couple micro climates across the state. One south of Lafayette and couple over on the east side of the state on the Henry-Delaware County line area. But for the most part yields on down very low, but from what we walked and scouted all summer long yields are actually coming in a little higher than expected.”
In those cases he’s talking about fields they estimated at 50 or 60 bushels but are now reporting 70, 80, and 90 bushels to the acre. Tremendous soybean yields coming in are proof, Gault says, of the value of late rains.
When planning for 2013 Gault advises growers not to get caught up in the drought this year and continue basing decisions on multi-year data and other on-farm particulars like soil types.[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/10/Yields-better-than-expected.mp3|titles=Yields better than expected]
Monsanto announced a month ago another refuge in the bag product approved for 2013, Genuity VT Triple PRO RIB Complete. It will be available in Indiana next year and Gault explains the new blend in the full HAT interview:[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/10/Aaron-Gault-of-Monsanto.mp3|titles=Aaron Gault of Monsanto]