News

Indiana corn 45%, soybeans 52% rated good to excellent

Warm temperatures helped Indiana’s crops advance, but last week’s heavy rain showers left standing water and crop damage in parts of the state.

According to the latest weekly crop report just 45 percent of Indiana’s corn crop is rated good to excellent and 36 percent is rated fair.  Ninety-six percent of soybeans have been planted with 84 percent emerged and 52 percent rated good to excellent.

Central Indiana farmer Mike Shuter says after replanting almost 40 percent of his corn, conditions are variable.  “We’ve got a few fields that look pretty good – what we got planted early,” he says.  “Than the next week or so of planting looks pretty ragged with a lot of replant done.  And then we got some that we were finally able to get planted toward the end of May, first part of June.”

He tells Brownfield they planted their soybeans into standing green cereal rye this year and he says that was an added benefit to the crop.  “When we got really dry there for a week or two – I think that cover crop was helping to hold the moisture in place at that point in time,” he says.  “And it helped us to get crops up that was planted later on.”

Sixty-nine percent of the state’s winter wheat crop is mature and 23 percent is harvested and 95 percent of the first cutting of alfalfa hay is complete.