I-80 Harvest Tour: Harvest Wraps up with Dry Conditions Resulting in Surprising Yields in Ohio and Missouri

Ohio farmer Mark Ruff just finished the 2022 harvest last week.  The Circleville farmer was pleased with the results on his corn, considering the lack of moisture during the growing season.  "Corn yields for us this year have been above trendline.  We were our early season yield checks you hand checking the ears we thought we’d be corn in the 160s-170s and we’ve been delightfully surprised.  Pushing 200 plus in many fields."

That’s above his farm APH which run 185 to 190 bushels per acre, and it even takes into account some tip back.  Ruff says, "A little bit of tip back might have cost us about 10% on yield maybe and again it depends on where.  We have some light gravel ground south of here that it really hurt it probably took 20% off the top.  You know here saw very little tip back in the ears."  

Ruff says when it comes to soybeans though, the lack of rain during the reproductive stage hurt that crop.   "Negative impact on soybeans.  We needed soybeans to really fill out late, we needed some September rains, let that fungicide work and we have average bean yields at best."   

And test weight on the beans have also been subpar, but better on corn and the crop will need very little drying.  "Our last containers we loaded; weight was like 58 so we want 60 plus.  3:05 Corn test weights have been excellent for what we did haul in."

Bernie, Missouri farmer Zachary Tanner also had dry conditions on his farm, in fact he likens it to the drought in 2012, so irrigation costs were high.  "At one point we were spending about $40,000 to $50,000 a week in diesel and electricity for irrigation."  

But he’s not complaining because the irrigation saved the bean crop on his farm.  Tanner says, "Our soybean yields have been above our 10-year average, not as good as last year in 2021. But our yields are running somewhere just under 70 bushels an acre 68 or so something like that."

Tanner says even with the irrigation, some rice yields were off due to excessive heat during pollination.  "Rice yields were kind of a mixed bag depending on kind of when they pollinated and how they dried down. But generally speaking, rice yields are very good. We like to we would like to produce 200 bushel an acre and we had several varieties make that mark. So generally, it was a good crop on the rice."

Tanner also grows field corn and popcorn and says the heat also trimmed those yields by about 20%.   "We would like to make about 6000 pounds an acre crop yields this year average right around 5000 pounds an acre for our popcorn in 2022."

In addition to irrigation costs, Tanner says the high input prices made for an expensive operating year, so he’s looking ahead with guarded optimism about 2023.