Despite the recent rainfall this past week, drought conditions have worsened for most of the state.
According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map, 98 percent of Indiana is “abnormally dry”, while 80 percent of the state is under a “moderate drought” and 34 percent is experiencing a “severe drought.” That third of the state that is under a “severe drought” has extended from northwestern Indiana now south into Terre Haute and Indianapolis.
“It’s just been extremely dry, and our subsoil moisture is pretty much exhausted,” says Marty Park, an agronomist with Gutwein Seed Services—a Specialty Hybrids dealer based out of Jasper County.
Park says rainfall amounts varied across the state on Sunday and earlier this week, but it’s hasn’t been enough to make up for the lack of moisture over the past two months.
“For the most part, I think all of our customers in northwestern Indiana got at least a little bit of rain,” according to Park. “It had been quite a while for some of them—almost a month since the previous rainfall. I live outside of Rensselaer, and I think I had an inch of rain in May and 1.1 inches so far in June.”
The recent haze and smoke from the Canadian wildfires may have been helpful to Indiana’s crops.
“The plants are not using as much moisture as if it was 90 degrees, there was bright sunshine and 20-percent relative humidity, like it was a few weeks back,” says Park. “It’s maybe a blessing in disguise, but when we get into the grain fill period, we would not want this cloudy, hazy, smoky weather. We want bright sunlight. We have to have that to make the big yields that we anticipate.”
While Indiana’s corn and soybean crops are rated at 47-percent good-to-excellent according to the USDA, Park says there’s still a lot of growing season left to go.
“I would encourage growers to be patient,” says Park. “Surprisingly, for no more rain than we’ve had and with all the heat that we’ve had, this crop is hanging in there pretty good. We still have a really good chance to raise a very good crop. If you have good stands, had even emergence, and have good root systems, don’t give up on this crop too early. We still have a lot of potential because these hybrids and varieties are a lot more resilient than what they used to be 10, 15, or 20 years ago.”
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s radio news radio for Hoosier Ag Today with Marty Park, an agronomist with Gutwein Seed Services—a Specialty Hybrids dealer.
This update is sponsored by Specialty Hybrids. At Specialty Hybrids, it’s your field, our Specialty. Find your local field sales representative and dealer online at www.specialtyhybrids.com.
