Indiana’s drought conditions continue to see improvement as some parts of the state received over three inches of rainfall this past week. That’s been helping to stabilize crop conditions.
“I would say right now our crop condition is just dry,” according to Bill Schwieterman—a Specialty Hybrids dealer for YieldTECH Seed Service which covers Jay and Adams counties in northeastern Indiana.
According to the latest Drought Monitor map, 81 percent of the state is ‘abnormally dry’, 43 percent remains under a ‘moderate drought’, and 19 percent of Indiana is experiencing a ‘severe drought’.
“We keep getting just a few tenths-of-an-inch to limp us along,” says Schwieterman on the recent rainfall. “Overall, our crop looks really good. We’re finally getting some of our beans to canopy here and guys are finished up spraying on the soybeans as they’re getting ready to close the canopy and get that done for the year.”
He also says that farmers have had to deal with more respraying of corn herbicides because of the dryer conditions.
“We’ve had more velvetleaf escapes, and I’m not quite sure why that is this year. We know waterhemp is going to escape also, but the main thing that my guys are trying to do is alleviating stress and making sure whatever herbicides we’re spraying right now are as friendly to the plant as we can. Some guys are adding folic acid and things like that, making sure that we eliminate any kind of extra stress because of the dry weather that we’ve had,” says Schwieterman.
What advice does Schwieterman have for Indiana’s grain farmers?
“Stay the course. If you have your fungicide purchased and you have your foliar products purchased, let’s make sure we apply those. Try to do it as timely as the weather allows us to do it, and then hopefully in the end when we take the combines to the field, we’re going to be rewarded for that extra work,” says Schwieterman.
Click below for C.J. Miller’s radio news report for Hoosier Ag Today.
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.
