News

Much of Michigan still too dry

An agronomy educator says his home area of southeastern Michigan is still very dry.  Ned Birkey tells Brownfield the rain showers have been few and far between. “We’ve had little bits of rain and there have been some scattered and very locally-heavy showers, but in general, now that we’re in the grain fill time for corn and soybeans, we could easily use an inch of water a week and you’d never see any ponding in the fields or puddles. It would all be soaked up.”

Birkey says he’s concerned about the corn crop, but a bit more optimistic about soybeans. “We’re approaching the time in the next couple of weeks when it’s going to be too late for corn for grain fill, but soybeans, they say soybean yields are made in August so we’ve still got a lot of time in soybeans to hopefully get some good growth and some good pod fill.”

Birkey says it is still a little too early to peel back a few corn ears to do an accurate early season harvest estimate.  He says he’s heard of some good crops in parts of Illinois, but he’s concerned much of the corn belt could have below-average yields this year.

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