Soybean futures prices rallied Monday on the concern that the hot, dry weather was hurting yields. Crop condition ratings both nationally and in Indiana have declined in the past week. TC Huffman, agronomist with DuPont Pioneer in Eastern Indiana, says the crop in his area is in trouble, “Last year we had some late season rains that helped the crop finish well and, as a result, we had some good yields. This year we are going to have some disappointed farmers.” He said the lack of late reason rains is hurting pod fill, late season growth, and extra pod development.
Huffman says it is not only the dry weather of the past 2 weeks, but some significant disease pressure caused by the rains of earlier this season, “We are seeing a lot of sudden death syndrome (SDS) as well as a good deal of white mold.” He told HAT some fields may look good from the road but, upon closer inspection, many problems can be discovered.
The forecast calls for hot and dry conditions to continue this week and into next. Huffman says, if the rains don’t come, yields will be cut, “I could see losses of up to 10 bpa.” He said the early maturing soybean varieties have already suffered loss, while later season varieties could still recover if rains would develop.
Huffman expects corn harvest to begin about the 3rd week in September in much of Eastern Indiana. He said the dry weather has also reduced corn yields this year. In addition, excessive nitrogen loss has occurred because of the heavy rains this spring. While the hot, dry condition has hurt grain fill, it has helped made up Growing Degree Units (GDU) that were lagging because of the cooler weather in June, “We were running 120 to 130 gdus behind. These hot conditions will help make that up and move the corn toward maturity.”
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