Indiana farmers are heading towards the finish line on soybean harvest at 87% complete. However, corn harvest is only 68% done which is 8 points behind the five-year average and 13-points behind last year. Farmers have been delayed by a wet corn crop but also bigger yields.
Despite the weather extremes Indiana farmers faced during the season, USDA is estimating statewide yields will be above 2022 for both corn and soybeans. So far harvest results are confirming that trend.
Near Lafayette, Chuck Shelby planted the crop in dust this spring but was able to go through all the low spots and saw even emergence. So even with the dry conditions the crop got off to a good start. “Probably the positive is we have one of the best stands ever.”
And the dryness he saw at planting continued through the early part of the season. “Well, moisture wise, we ended up being very dry all the way through the month of June and parts of July.”
But then Shelby says the weather pattern changed. “We started getting rained consistently about an inch and a half a week as we got into the end of July and August. So that really made our crop here.”
In fact, soybean yields ran much better than the low to mid-60s Shelby saw in the fall of 2022. “A lot of 65-to-80-bushel averages for fields for whole field averages. We’re probably going to average in the low 70s. Soybean yields were better than average much better than last year. It wasn’t the best beans we ever had but it was a good crop. I think if we would have got rain in September it would have really been our best crop.”
He says corn yields are also running from 250 to 260 bushel per acre dry, so they’re pleasantly surprised. “So overall, I think, you know, we’re going to be above average crop at the end of the day, which last year again this part of Indiana didn’t have that can get a yield so a lot better than last year for us.”
However, they still lost top end yield potential with the dryness and extreme heat late in the season which caused the crop to die down prematurely. “I think that’s kind of why the crop seems not wanting to lose moisture. It’s kind of just didn’t want to dry down and I think that made the beans, tough the stem stuff so I think that lack of rainfall September cause to crop difficulty in harvesting.”
That’s also preventing the corn from drying down, slowing the harvest and driving up costs. Shelby says, “Well, I think that’s kind of the surprising part in this part of Indiana the moisture seems to be stuck between 18 and 20. Some areas maybe even as high as 24. It’s really slowing the progress down for those farmers that don’t have their own drying systems because a lot of the local elevators are limiting the amount of time, they’ll take wet corn. And I think it’s simply they can’t dry it as fast either. So, it seems to be a consistent situation in this part of Indiana.”
However, USDA has Indiana yields pegged higher than a year ago at 197 bushels on corn verses 190 last year, with soybeans at 61 bushels, up from 57.5 last year. And Shelby thinks that’s in line. “I think Indiana will be better than last year by quite a bit. I don’t know if it’s a record crop but overall, I think most farms in Indiana are pleased with their yields and it’ll be better than last year.” And they’ll need those extra bushels with corn and soybean prices well below last year.
