Indiana received another round of showers and in some cases thunderstorms Thursday. A Tipton farmer said there hasn’t been much moderation in weather events this year, so Jeff Harlow was grateful yesterday’s shower was moderate.
“We certainly weren’t in need and I’d say that we got a tenth or two,” he reported. “It’s been long enough that we’ve had anything that freshening up from the surface, cooling it down some was certainly not a bad thing, but grateful that it was a moderate rain and not another one of the ground pounders that we’ve had the entire spring.”
Evaluating the crops at this point of the season depends on the measuring stick being used. Compared to last year Harlow’s corn and soybeans are struggling. But compared to even some nearby fields this year, he has a different perspective.
“Relative to a short drive north, south, east, west, we are pretty blessed,” he told HAT. “We had some early corn that stand alone in this year looking at it, it looks good. If you compared it to last year’s look at this point, we wouldn’t choose even our best fields over what they looked like last year. But for all that they’ve endured I am pleasantly surprised as to how good they look at this point.”
But that will not translate to trend line yields.
Some disease has shown up in the corn crop, and Harlow has applied fungicide over about half of the corn acres. Weed control this year is working well. Hear more in the full HAT interview:Jeff Harlow July-17 update