News

61% of Indiana corn, 59% of soybeans rated good to excellent  

The USDA says cool and dry conditions aided winter wheat harvest last week in Indiana.

Ninety-six percent of the crop is harvested, slightly behind its five-year pace.

Sixty-one percent of Indiana’s corn crop is in good to excellent condition, with 64 percent silking, and 11 percent at the dough making stage.

Fifty-nine percent of soybeans are rated good to excellent, with 59 percent blooming, and 20 percent at the pod setting stage.

Southcentral Indiana Farmer Norman Voyles says drought conditions in his area have subsided and crops are looking good.

“We had some soybeans that looked kind of ugly when that rain started and we thought maybe we’re getting some disease pressure and turns out no, there’s just some sort of a physiological thing that was going on. Our agronomist said, well, just go away for 10 days and when you come back, it’ll look a lot better.”

As far as expectations for yields, he says,” I would say we’re going to be average to above average for corn yields. I hate to judge soybeans because they can look great and not yield very good or they can look kind of lousy and still yield above average. But as far as just the health of the crop right now, things look pretty good in our part of the country.”

Pasture conditions were rated 50 percent good to excellent. Some livestock needed supplemental hay due to slow pasture regrowth or overgrazing.