News

Indiana’s crops continue to struggle

Indiana’s corn and soybean crops still remain under 50 percent good to excellent.  The recent weather conditions have helped earlier planted corn begin to dry down and poorer quality fields are being harvested for silage.  According to the latest weekly crop and weather report 47 percent of the corn crop is in good to excellent conditions with 80 percent of the crop in dough stage and 34 percent dented.

As harvest nears, Purdue Extension field crop disease specialist Kiersten Wise says farmers should be watching for signs of stalk rot and ear rot.  “We do have fields that are nitrogen deficient or have poor root development – these would be fields that would be more prone to stalk rot and lodging as we head into harvest,” she says.  “Also we had a lot of rain around silking – so we do have a higher risk of ear rots this year.”

If either stalk rot or ear rot are present in corn fields – she says farmers will want to harvest those fields first.

Forty-seven percent of the soybean crops are rated good to excellent with 96 percent blooming and 89 percent setting pods.  Wise tells Brownfield soybeans have been relatively healthy this year.  “We’re seeing a little bit of Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) pop up here and there,” she says.  “But nothing as severe as we’ve seen in past years.”

Both tomato and tobacco harvest are also underway in Indiana.