According to the USDA's September Crop Report Indiana's projected corn yield is down 3 bushels.
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) — The 2022 harvest season is underway and farmers are remaining hopeful.
According to the USDA's September crop report, the projected corn yield decreased 3 bushels from last month's anticipated yield.
“The first crop report that came out in august they were projection 189 bushels per acre for corn , which would’ve been tied for the second highest yield average that we had in the state of Indiana,” said Quinn. “The September report came out and it actually went down, so we’re sitting at about 186 bushels per acre for yield average across the state.”
Quinn said 186 is still good, but not as good as what farmers saw last year with 195 bushels per acre.
“It really comes back to the stressful conditions we had earlier in the year,” said Quinn. “A lot of folks were behind in getting their crops in the ground, but if you look at the month of June the weather was really dry.”
The dry weather conditions impacted the crops in many ways.
Quinn said many crops look good from a distance, but when you get in the fields you'll notice some issues.
“It’s typically called ‘Tip-back’ on the ears so the corn just didn’t fill all the way to the tip,” said Quinn. “The goal every year is to get the corn ear to fill entirely to the tip of the ear.”
Quinn said this is a common issues he's seeing in fields across the state.
“We may have a good ear size, but the plant just doesn’t have enough to fill the ear,” said Quinn. “When it doesn’t have enough to fill the ear it starts to abort kernels at the tip of the ear.”
Quinn believes this issue influenced the UDSA's recent September crop report. He said the crops are showing what a dry summer, especially in June, can do to your crops.
“It can really hinder the growth of the plant and just the overall output of that plant," said Quinn. "When that happens it kind of impacts it on the back end of the season where we’re seeing the corn plant just doesn’t have enough to fill that ear.”
While June was a dry month for most of the state, Quinn said other parts saw a lot of rain. He said that also created stressful conditions for the crops.
"I point to the month of June because not only were some folks dry in the month of June , there's other parts of the state in Northwest Indiana and really Southwest Indiana that got 5 inches of rain," said Quinn. "So stressful conditions in terms of some flooding in areas and then other stressful conditions in terms of how dry it was."
For soybeans, Indiana's projected yield did not change from August to September.
The USDA is still forecasting Indiana's soybean yield to be 60 bushels per acre, which would be a record yield.
"Corn needs a lot of its water in mid-July, especially when it's tasseling, so June and July are a critical period and we were dry in terms of corn," said Quinn. "Soybeans are kind of on the other spectrum where it needs the moisture in August and September and we got moisture in August and September."
