In the latest Purdue Crop Chat Podcast, we focus exclusively on soybean development with Purdue Extension Soybean Specialist Shaun Casteel. Hot and dry weather throughout August is expected to shave off some of Indiana’s anticipated record yield.
“We have nearly half the state that’s considered abnormally dry to even a moderate drought, and then that same upper northeast part of the state going into the central we’ve got about 15 percent that’s in the D1 or moderate drought.”
USDA projected Indiana’s soybean yield at a record-high 61 bushels per acre in their August report. Casteel believes USDA will knock it down some, but probably not a lot.
“It’s nothing like some of our states to the west and that are into more severe drought conditions. So, I think that we are losing a little bit. It’s probably some sprinkles and a little bit of icing on the cake right now.”
Casteel says soybeans have lost some of their pod load during this drought; however,
“The beauty is, if we do lose out on some of those pods and we have rain that comes back, seed size swings are pretty remarkable. So, we can have a swing when we’re gaining instead of an average 3000 seeds per pound, we go and we gain another 150 seeds fewer per pound so we get the bigger seeds, we’re at a 3 to 4 bushel swing. So, I think there is a potential to bring it back if we get some of this rain to come through.”
HAT Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin’s extended forecast does call for a drier September than usual.