News

Crop potential continues to decline

Excessive rainfall continues to damage Indiana’s corn crop.   On June 8^th – USDA rated 75 percent of Indiana’s corn crop good to excellent.  Just three weeks later – only 48 percent of the crop is rated good to excellent.

Purdue ag economist Chris Hurt says the decline in crop conditions represents a loss of roughly 15 bushels per acre for corn with an estimated value of around $300 million.  He says the potential decline for soybeans is just over 3 bushels per acre with an estimated value of $175 million.

However, he tells Brownfield it is important to remember those figures do not represent the total economic loss for the state’s agricultural sector.  “There will be some compensations,” he says.  “We expect these higher prices on the grain production farmers do have – they should be able to get higher prices than we had expected – which will help compensate some.  And then government crop insurance – the Federal Crop Insurance programs will be available to growers.  But it is way too early to make those estimates.”

He says it is still fairly early in the growing season – and there is still time for the crop conditions to improve, but if the current weather conditions continue conditions could decline further.