At the Indiana State Fair in August Mark Bacon of Milroy in Rush County said he had farm ground that seemed to be in a garden spot. The growing season was going great and his was a story not many Indiana farmers could share. Two months later it is harvest and that ground is providing very good results for Bacon.
“Soybeans ran in the mid 60’s and we had a little that ran 70 bushels per acre, but we’re probably going to average above 60 bushels on soybeans across the board. Corn has been for the most part 170 to 220, and we had one field that went 232, so we’re really happy with that.”
Those yields are a little above average. But like most farmers, just up the road there is a different story. Bacon spoke with HAT Friday in a field 14 miles from home in Shelby County.
“It’s not going to be quite as good. I think I had some water damage up there. There was some heavy rain just after I got it planted and it’s not turning out quite as good. Looks like it will be in the 140-150 bushel range.”
Bacon said he’s watched yield variances in those fields from 220 bushels all the way down to 120. And in that garden spot back in Rush County, Bacon had record wheat production.
“I had a hundred bushel wheat. My brother had a little bit less, about 95 on what we ran prior to July 6th. After the 6th the rains started hitting and we were out of the field for two weeks and then the quality went down and the yield went down.”
Bacon feels they would have continued getting the 100 bushel yields but the rain after July 6th put an end to that. Soybeans were wrapped up last week and he expects to finish corn harvest mid-week this week.