Indiana corn yields, soy pod counts down

 

 

Corn and soy conditions in Indiana are weaker than they were a year ago, according to Tuesday (August 18) results from the eastern leg of the 2009 Pro Farmer Midwestern Crop Tour.

 

The tour projected a corn yield of 157.35 bushels per acre in the Hoosier State, compared to 163.82 bushels per acre last year, a drop of 4 percent.

 

Soy pod counts dropped 8 percent. The tour found an average pod count in a three-foot by three-foot area of 1,194.9, down from last year's total of 1,298.8.

 

The lower crop projections are contrary to the latest projections from the US Department of Agriculture, which on Aug. 12 projected larger corn and soy crops for the state.

 

The Pro Farmer tour's findings reflect stress from dryness with the corn crop and widely variable conditions across the state, scouts said. The tour took 122 samples of each crop from throughout the state.

 

"I've been on the tour for four years, and this is the biggest variation I've seen in both corn and soy," said Richard Guse, a tour scout from Minnesota.

 

 

The USDA's report reflected conditions as of Aug. 1, and since then the crop has not received the rains it needed, said Roger Bernard, eastern tour leader. He said heavy rains that fell across northern Indiana overnight Monday into Tuesday morning are probably too late to help the crop much.

 

Bernard's route Tuesday, which headed north from the Indianapolis area, past Kokomo to Logansport before turning west, initially found strong yields, including one at 205.4 bushels in Miami County. But conditions deteriorated in White and Jasper counties. One troubled field in White County, with a yield of 83.3 bushels per acre, appeared to have had excessive rains shortly after planting, as plant-spacing was scattered and some ears had "crazy top," a condition in which ears do not form properly. The ears also had mould.

 

"Some of those ears were so ugly I didn't even want to touch them," Bernard said.

 

Another field in the region had considerable ragweed and beetle infestation.

 

Conditions on Bernard's route improved heading west toward and into Illinois, but were still somewhat spotty.

 

Other scouts who travelled both north and south of Indianapolis also reported inconsistent crops.

 

"As we came into Illinois, our expectations were not met," said Byron Jones, a farmer from Saybrook, Ill., whose tour headed southwest to Charleston, Ill., before heading north near Decatur.

 

In one seven-mile stretch east of Maroa, Ill., scouts counted 20 different areas of at least one acre in which there was ponding, he said.

 

Although pod counts were down, the soy crop has impressed some scouts, who noted that fields appear even and healthy. One scout, a farmer from southeast Ohio, said he has been struck by how little disease pressure soy are facing.

 

"If this bean crop gets time, I think it can be a pretty awesome crop," he said.

 

Bernard said the rains throughout Indiana this week would also likely give the crop some help.

 

The USDA projects Indiana's soy crop at 246.6 million bushels, with a yield of 45 bushels per acre. Last year's production was 244.4 million bushels.

 

A couple of analysts said the perceived weakness in the Indiana crop would likely be balanced in the market by notably stronger conditions reported for Nebraska on the western leg of the tour.

 

The tour continues Wednesday with about 45 participants on 10 routes setting out from Bloomington, Ill. The group will end the day in Iowa City, Iowa, where Pro Farmer will release estimates for Illinois' corn and soy crops.