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According to the USDA, 42 percent of Indiana’s corn and 65 percent of the state’s soybeans are harvested. However, those numbers are likely lower throughout parts of northern and northeastern Indiana as farmers deal with recent rains after many months of dry conditions.
Rob Schuman, a Field Sales Representatives for Specialty Hybrids who is based out of Whitley County, discusses the irony of the soggy conditions that northeastern Indiana farmers are seeing now compared to the dry conditions weeks earlier.
“What’s been harvested has been as good or slightly better than expected based on the dry conditions we dealt with late in the growing season,” says Schuman. “Getting harvest rolling here has been kind of a struggle. The weather really hasn’t cooperated, and we had a difficult end to our growing season with the dry August. That’s impacted some things like seed size on the soybeans. It seems like every time we start to get a nice window to work, we get another rain event moving in, so it’s been a struggle so far.”
Schuman says the rains have also slowed down harvest progress for corn as well.
“Corn yields have been good—what little bit has been harvested—but it is very wet to date. There are a lot of moisture levels in that 30-percent range so far or high 20-percent range. As far as yields, they’ve been solid. I’ll say they aren’t as good as last year, but very good yields to date. But it’s been a very small percentage of the corn has been shelled in my area.”
Schuman adds that some farmers are seeing lower yields from disease pressure including anthracnose and tar spot in corn, as well as white mold and sudden death syndrome in soybeans.
“In certain areas it’s not widespread. It’s hard to predict. I heard from a grower yesterday who said it was a 40-bushel difference where the airplane wasn’t able to get fungicides sprayed versus where it was sprayed, so I feel that spraying fungicide on corn and soybeans has just become part of production for anyone that wants to maximize yields,” according to Schuman.
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.
