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Indiana corn harvest has lagged the five-year pace this season, but other than rainy weather ahead, it may finally be getting to a manageable moisture level.
DEKALB Asgrow Technical Agronomist Jason Harmon says good progress was made in the last week in southern Indiana and the west-central part of the state too.
“A lot of the corn that we’re seeing it’s 20 percent plus and that is definitely manageable, but it does take more artificial drying to get us down to the 15 percent. So, corn it’s been waiting and seeing, but I will say beans, a lot of guys are getting after because we have seen this last week we start getting into the later part of this year, the weather just makes cutting soybeans so much harder. They just can’t start until the middle to later part of the day and just can’t get as much done due to these dews and this cooler weather.”
Harmon describes this year’s soybean yields as very good. He said the crop is the opposite of last year when late heat and dryness negatively impacted soybean size.
“This year I’m seeing vice versa,” he told HAT. “We actually had a nice slow finish here and then it just larger soybeans and I’ve heard nothing but good results. The only places we’re seeing issues with yield potential on soybeans are where we ran into white mold. We haven’t seen white mold here specifically in Northern Indiana for quite some time. You just have some pockets, the very north side right along the Michigan line where we consistently see white mold. But I will tell you that from what we saw this year I would say it was sprinkled throughout the state.”
And he says corn yields are good so far.
“There are some fields that are doing way better than expected, but overall I’d say corn yields are good. It’s kind of like last year when we didn’t have as high expectations and they were phenomenal, so we were kind of more or less shocked. Here in ‘23 I think we had pretty decent expectations that this corn was going to just be like last year, very similar growing conditions as in we got it planted and then it was very, very dry in June and then we had enough moisture to get a good pollination and then just enough moisture to carry us all the way through. I feel like this year was very similar, and I like what I’m seeing in the yields.”
Harmon credits amazing genetics that help farmers realize good yields even in minimal-rainfall conditions.
Last week corn harvested sat at 30 percent and the number jumped to 42 percent this week, but that still trails the 5-year average of 54 percent. Soybean harvest a week ago in Indiana was at 52 percent. This week the number is 65 percent, 2 percent behind the 5-year pace.
National harvest progress this week is up to 59 percent in corn and 76 percent in soybeans, both ahead of the 5-year average.