While many of the early harvest reports have not been encouraging, soybean numbers from western counties are looking better.
In West Central Indiana, corn is still far too wet to harvest, so growers have been focusing on soybeans. Ben Jacob, agronomist with Pioneer, says the beans are in good shape, “The focus here in western counties has been on soybeans; and, for the most part, they are doing well. I this is not the case in other parts of the state.”
As for yields, Jacob says they are down from last year but better than had been expected, “On average, we are running about 10 bushels below last year, but that is a lot better than had been expected.” He noted that green stem was a lot more prevalent this year and was hurting yields in some areas.
Jacob says the corn harvest will not begin in earnest until next week but worries that stalk issues will worsen as frost has occurred in several locations, “There, light frost just hurt stalk quality and grain fill. A hard freeze would be better.” Extreme variability in moisture will also make the corn harvest a very slow one.