Corn yields across six regions of Indiana were estimated Tuesday at 142.94 bushels per acre, below the state’s three-year average of 155.21, and nearly 23% less than the crop tour’s 2014 average of 185.03 bushels per acre.
The state’s corn crop, which is the fifth-largest in the nation, also will miss the most recent federal forecasts, in which the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Aug. 1 projected yields at 158 bushels per acre.
The new estimate is 24% lower than last year’s state average of 188.0 bushels per acre, reported by the USDA.
“I have never seen such a mess in all my life,” said Dick Overby, a retired Minnesota farmer, of Indiana’s corn, adding that crops were “short, with too few kernels, small ears and stunted stalks. You name it—if it didn’t work right it happened in Indiana.”
Yield forecasts are based on data collected by participants on the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour, who descend each year on fields in the Midwest to size up corn and soybean crops.
Survey results suggest soybeans in Indiana will come in at 1093.08 pods per 3-foot square, below the state’s three-year average of 1146.39 pods and 10.5% lower than the crop tour’s 2014 average of 1220.79 pods.
Pro Farmer doesn’t forecast soybean yields for the 2015-2016 crop year beginning Sept. 1, as numerous factors can affect the quality of the plants before the end of the growing season, including weather. August is a critical month for setting soybean pods and filling them with beans.
The USDA earlier this month pegged the nation’s soybean crop at 3.92 billion bushels, below last year’s record crop, but well above what analysts had anticipated. Heavy June rains this year drenched fields in the eastern Midwest, thwarting seeding of some soybean crops and leeching nutrients from the soil in corn fields.
