As corn and soybean growers get ready to begin their harvest, the bullish optimism they felt just last month has been tempered by a hot and very dry end to the season. Forecasts from the USDA and Pro Farmer Crop Tour back in August called for high, even record-breaking, yields. Now it looks like expectations should be a little more modest.
Michigan-based crop consultant and Farm Journal field agronomist Missy Bauer joins Tyne Morgan and Clinton Griffiths on the Unscripted podcast to explain what she’s seeing and how the late-season drought might shape what farmers can expect as they start up their harvesters.
“The last month of dry weather has had an impact, unfortunately,” Missy says. “A lot of farmers will be surprised by how dry their corn is when they get into it.” She explains that the hot, dry weeks have caused corn to mature and dry down too quickly, which can impact yields because “so much yield today comes from the depth or the size of the kernel itself.”
The timing of the heat and lack of moisture has been even worse for soybeans. “In our area we were podded up for a record bean crop,” Missy says. “The podding on these beans was unbelievable. I’m bummed out that we had such a good start and couldn’t finish it.”
Despite the poor end to the season, she still believes yields will be strong. “While the last month is going to take the top off the cream of this crop, we’re going to have some good crops, without any question.” she says. “With what we’re doing with genetics, we’re so resilient to weather issues.”
Missy and the hosts shift the discussion on the podcast from how much yield farmers can expect to where they’ll store that crop after it’s been harvested. “We’re going to have crops standing in the field because they have nowhere to go,” she says. Clinton and Tyne add that not only could there be storage issues, the drought has also impacted barge traffic due to lower river levels.
Maybe growers have done too good of a job this year. With harvest upon us, we’ll soon find out.
Listen to the full episode of Unscripted.
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