News

Indiana crops: corn 53%; soybeans 53% good to excellent

Continued hot and dry weather is adding stress to Indiana crops.

According to the latest weekly crop report, 53 percent of the corn crop is rated good to excellent with 80 percent in the dough stage and 40 percent dented.

Southwest Indiana farmer Mark Seib says overall – he’s pleased with how the crops look.  “Compared to the 15 inches we got in one day this spring and had to replant the majority of our corn, the crop is looking fairly good – for us,” he says.

He tells Brownfield crops in his part of the state have faced some disease pressure this year and after Southern Rust was confirmed just north of his farm, they opted to spray their corn crop with fungicide.  “It’s going to slow it down, make it healthier, and make it better,” he says.  “And that’s exactly what it’s done.  A month ago I would have said we would have been in the fields September 1 – now it’s going to be more like the second week or a little bit longer before we get into the field harvesting corn.”

Soybeans are rated 53 percent good to excellent with 96 percent of the crop blooming and 86 percent setting pods.

Harvest is underway for some of the state’s specialty crops like processing tomatoes and potatoes and harvest is 9 percent complete for the state’s tobacco crop.

AUDIO: Mark Seib, Southwest Indiana farmer