Harvest continues to roll across the Hoosier State, with farmers capitalizing on cooperative weather windows to make substantial progress on soybeans and begin shifting their focus to corn.
In Northeast Indiana’s Allen County, Roger Hadley reports that soybean harvest has finally gotten off the ground on acreage planted before heavy May rains, with yields holding up better than many feared.
“What I’m hearing is they’re pleasantly surprised with the yield,” Hadley says. “Nobody has really said what their yields are, but it’s maybe closer to average than what they thought. My beans in the Woodburn area, we did not get going until the last week of May—our heavy ground was just not ready even though it’s drained every 25 foot. We look like we should start sometime early to mid week; we should have some beans ready to go.”
Hadley notes that corn silage chopping in the area has wrapped up, with adjusted silage yields estimated between 180 and 200 bushels per acre, down several bushels compared to last year’s crop.
Further south in Delaware County, Jenna Scott of Cox Farms Inc. in Gaston reports that soybean harvest is nearly complete, though August flooding left a mark on lower ground.
“We definitely ran into the fields that had some heavy water damage,” Scott says. “The beans were standing there, but there was just nothing in them, nothing in the pods. So we’ve had some yields down probably five to 10 bushel in those areas that had that water damage—some drown-outs as bad as six acres, other drown-outs were minimal. So, it just depended on the field and how it handled everything.”
Across Northwest Indiana, open weather in LaPorte County allowed combines to make rapid gains. Denise Scarborough reports that Red Gold tomato harvest has wrapped up and seed corn harvest continues, while commercial soybean cutting progresses at a steady clip.
“It’s not going to be a bin-buster year, but given that we basically had a flood to drought three times this year, we are pretty happy with the consistent yields that we’re seeing,” Scarborough says. “Beans are coming in at a good rate, and we’re pretty happy with what we’ve had.”
In West Central Indiana, Ryan Rippy has wrapped up soybean cutting across Fountain, Montgomery, and Tippecanoe counties and has turned combines toward corn.
“Bean yields were good, definitely not a record, but they were pretty good,” Rippy says. “Just getting started on corn [Thursday], and it’s going well. The corn is dry—or drier than anticipated, maybe—running about 17.5%, which is good. We can go directly to the bin with that. It’s maybe a little bit disappointing yield-wise—definitely not bad, but maybe a little bit lower than expectations, certainly lower than the last three record crops that we’ve had. So, maybe a little bit on the disappointing side because we’ve been so spoiled the last couple years.”
Down in Dubois County near Ferdinand, J.R. Roesner reports that harvest operations are entering the home stretch, with fall tillage and wheat planting also ramping up.
“Looks like we need probably about another week to finish up here,” Roesner says. “A lot of guys are getting close. A lot of fall tillage and some fieldwork, wheat planting going on right now. Looks like we’ll be maybe shut down over the weekend due to the remnants of the tropical storm, so hopefully be back in the field early to mid next week.”
Stay tuned to Hoosier Ag Today for weekly crop tour updates throughout harvest season.
