It’s full steam ahead for many farmers to finish 2020 harvest before Thanksgiving. While droughty conditions have enabled a faster harvest, they’ve also created wide swings in yield based on maturity and geography.
“Yields continue to ping pong all over,” says Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie. “[For] early planted beans, we continue to see yields in the mid-70s to mid 80s with a few over 90 bu. per acre. But as we move to late May and early June planted beans, the yields ping pong around.”
Depending on rainfall, he’s seeing a five to 20 bu. difference in May and June soybeans compared to April planted soybeans. Dry areas are reporting 45 to 50 bu. soybeans—mostly due to small bean size.
Corn, on the other hand, seems to be better in the later planted group. Reports are coming in that May planted corn is 20 to 40 bu. per acre better than April corn.
“We had a field of June corn at 245 bu. while the same farm’s April corn came in at 220,” Ferrie says. “We’re getting reports of corn dropping more than one [moisture] pointer per day this past week. Low humidity and winds are moving this thing along fast.”
While rapid-drying corn will help with the drying bill, there are watchouts.
“It’ll take away some stalk quality, so let’s stay on top of it,” he explains. “We’ve had a number of growers complaining about the invisible loss or hidden shrink they’re seeing after leaving these fields to cut beans and coming back two weeks later.”
If you’re seeing these yield losses, check for harvest loss differences as well. Ferrie says 17% moisture corn will have more header loss than 25% to 27% corn. Subtract that harvest loss from the yield losses you’re seeing to discover true invisible losses.
Listen to this week’s Boots in the Field report for more information about scorched edge effect and how plots are turning out:
