Storms have Taken a Toll on Northwest Indiana Crops

Matt Hayden update

Matt Hayden

Crop Watch is brought to you by Trupointe Cooperative and Winfield Solutions – now open in Milford.

Two weeks ago storms ripped through Indiana including tornados in the northwest corner that permanently damaged some corn. Matt Hayden farms in southern Lake County and he tells HAT the crops were in great shape until those storms came in and a deluge of rain in mid-June changed everything.

“About the 15th of June I would have told you we were going for an excellent crop all around and that week and for about a 10 day period we had 12 inches of rain. There’s water standing where water usually never stands. We have a lot of our crops in the low ground where it’s sort of flat and if they’re not dead now they’re leaning over. After we had the big rain they reported 90 MPH winds coming through and they said a couple of tornados touched down.”

The high winds took out one neighboring farmer’s entire grain system. Hayden says the result of the winds and saturated soils is not a pretty picture on almost half of the ground he farms.

“Those crops aren’t looking very pretty. They’ve come back and stood up a little bit but they’re still bowed over pretty good. We finally got back and replanted some beans, about a hundred acres out of 200 acres that was drowned out last week. But the high ground looks real good.”

This spring the Hayden family had a delayed start to planting because of rain, but they made good progress once the planters made it to the field on April 25th.

“We started out real good,” he told HAT. “We got all of our corn out in a timely manner and had just started planting beans when we had a wet spell for a week to 10 days, but then got the beans done in a timely manner and finished up the beans Memorial Day weekend.”

He has also just started wheat harvest and reports 70-80 bushel averages in the area so far.

Hoosier Ag Today brings you the latest from the fields across Indiana with Crop Watch – brought to you by Trupointe Cooperative and Winfield Solutions – now open in Milford.

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