Stand and Insect Issues Force Significant Corn Replant
Seventy-three percent of Indiana corn was rated in good to excellent condition this week by USDA, but rough weather has caused problems for some Indiana farmers. JR Roesner, who farms in Sullivan County, has seen his share of heavy rain this year. While he finally got most of his corn and soybeans planted, storms required a considerable amount of replanting, “We have had to replant about 20% of our corn crop, and we switched another 20% to soybeans.” He told HAT an additional 10% will be claimed as prevent plant. He said other farmers in the area have had similar results with 15% being an average amount of corn replanting on farms. He indicated some of these acres will be planted in soybeans, but not all.
In addition to stand issues, Roesner said disease played a part in his replanting issues, “We also had a significant issue with seed corn maggots this year.” He noted this was due to a failure of his seed treatment to protect the crop from this insect. He used an in furrow insecticide on his replanted crops.
But not all the news from SW Indiana is bad, Roesner’s wheat crop looks good, “From all indications it looks like we are going to have a very good wheat yields with perhaps a record crop for this area.” The harvest, however, will be late, “Normally we like to have the wheat off by the first week in June.” He added this year it will be end of June before harvest will begin and that is if there are no more rain delays. Further delays could spell problems for the planting of double crop soybeans behind the wheat.
Listen to the complete report with JR Roesner in the agronomy section of this web site and in the audio section of the HAT app for Smaratphones and tablets.