Indiana's corn harvest is a tale of two crops
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After a growing season of floods, wind, disease and too much rain, what Indiana farmers find in the combine this corn harvest will vary wildly.
Why it matters: What happens in Indiana's cornfields matters well beyond the farm. Corn is the state's biggest crop by value, supporting a huge farm economy and feeding livestock, ethanol and other industries.
The latest: As of Sept. 20, 7% of Indiana corn had been harvested, matching the five-year average. About 90% was dented and 46% mature.
- The USDA rates 61% of the crop good to excellent.
- The agency's latest yield estimate is 200 bushels per acre, down from 206 last month, for an expected 1.032 billion bushels.
Zoom in: Purdue Extension corn specialist Dan Quinn says the statewide number doesn't tell the whole story.
- After touring fields in east-central Indiana hit by August flooding, Quinn saw fields that received 15-20 inches of rain in a matter of days, with water reaching above the ears.
- "Those areas where water got above the ear were the worst," Quinn said during Wednesday's edition of the "Purdue Crop Chat" podcast. Kernels were rotting and prematurely sprouting, leaving grain that may be harvestable but of poor quality.
Yes, but: Some nearby fields just a few miles away escaped the worst flooding and had "good pollination, good fill," Quinn said.
- "It's just going to be dependent on which one pulls the other in," Quinn said of the damaged and exceptional fields shaping the statewide result.
Between the lines: Central Indiana's other problem is damage that may not be visible from the road.
- Purdue Extension soybean specialist Shaun Casteel pointed to fields around Tipton that received 6-8 inches of rain without the catastrophic flooding seen farther east.
- "There's going to be major pockets in fields that people are like, 'What happened here?'" Casteel said in the podcast. Purdue researchers documented more than 13 inches of rain in portions of eastern Indiana during the August event.
- In addition to the weather, wind damage, weakened root systems, possible nitrogen losses and unusually cloudy conditions during grain fill are creating challenges.
State of play: Now farmers are racing to get vulnerable corn out. Quinn said stalk problems and ear rots can worsen the longer damaged corn remains standing.
- "It's probably more beneficial to just get it out," he said, even if that means higher drying costs.
Case in point: In an interview with Brownfield Ag News, Hancock County farmer and former Indiana Corn Growers Association president Chris Cherry shared the same urgency.
- Cherry has harvested about 40 acres of soybeans and said the early fields are looking decent, with yields in the low 60-bushel range.
- But he lost roughly 4 to 5 acres to excessive water, and soybean yields across his area are ranging from about 35 to 80 bushels per acre depending largely on drainage.
- On corn, he said agronomists are reporting significant disease and weak stalks. "There's just a lot of disease in the corn," he said. "Don't let it stand."
What's next: Harvest will accelerate as more corn reaches maturity, but cooler, wetter weather could slow fieldwork and dry-down.
- Cherry said he expects the cooler temperatures to "slow things down again," while farmers with vulnerable corn are trying to harvest before more rain, wind or disease compounds the damage.