Crop Conditions Hold Strong Despite Excessive Moisture

Dere Niese – Putnam County 

Things are going pretty well here, and the good news is we’re harvesting tomatoes, and it’s not muddy. I can’t really say there’s much bad to report. Overall, we’re doing all right. 

In the last two weeks, we probably received somewhere between 4 and 5 inches of rain across most of our area. At the same time, you didn’t have to go very far north or south to find areas that got much more. We heard reports of places receiving up to ten inches, and that’s just too much rain. We were fortunate to avoid some of those heavier rain events. 

The wet conditions and humidity have brought some disease pressure. In our tomato crop, disease has set in across most of our fields. Some fields are worse than others, and the rain is definitely going to take some yield off the tomatoes. In corn, I’ve noticed a little disease on the lower leaves in a couple of fields, but I don’t think it’s going to result in a terrible yield hit. Soybeans look pretty good. To me, they always just look like soybeans, but overall they’re in good shape.  

Looking ahead, I think the rain will ultimately help our corn and soybean crops. I’m expecting a pretty good crop for both this year. We were fortunate compared to some other areas that experienced much more severe rain events, and I’d say we’re pretty lucky in that regard. 

Greg Ramsey – Ross County 

Not to sound like a broken record, but we’re still just getting ready and gearing up for harvest. I spent some time looking at the crops over the weekend, and our soybeans are still growing, still putting on pods and looking pretty good. We’ve had almost five inches of rain so far this month, so the beans are still going strong. The corn, on the other hand, is maturing fast. We’re well into the dent stage. I didn’t find anything that was black-layered yet, but we’re awfully close, and everything is showing signs of getting close to harvest. If I had to estimate it, I’d say we’ll probably be starting soybean harvest in about a month. 

With all the rain we’ve received, I expected to see a little more disease pressure, but we really haven’t. I did find a few earworms chewing on the ends of some corn ears here and there, but not very much. I haven’t noticed any disease, and things look fairly clean.  

As far as yield potential goes, I think we’ll be okay. We’ve been fortunate to stay clear of the heavy downpours and strong winds that have affected some other areas. I still think it’s going to be a really, really good yield. There’s a lot of potential out there, maybe not quite what I expected back in April when we finished planting, but we’re certainly not in a position to complain this year, especially after the last two.  

Matt Hartong – Summit County 

We’ve been pretty wet as of late. I think we got close to 2 to 2½ inches of rain in the last couple of weeks, and the corn has really appreciated that. We had been dry up until then, so the recent rains were definitely welcome. 

One thing I’ve been paying attention to with all that moisture is whether disease pressure would start to move in, but that’s not something I’ve noticed. Everything around here looks pretty healthy, and disease is not really a concern for us right now. 

As far as yields go, I think the timing of the rain will have different effects depending on when the crop was planted. Some of the early corn we put in during the beginning of May may have been a little too far along for the rain to affect ear size, particularly on some of our silage corn. That said, I think it’s going to be a good thing from a tonnage standpoint, and the moisture should help stretch this corn out a little longer. 

If it had stayed dry, we might have been looking at chopping corn within a couple of weeks. With all the rain, though, I think harvest timing is going to be pushed back some. The later-planted corn is where I really expect to see the benefits. I think it’s going to help ear size, and I’m looking forward to seeing what some of this corn ends up looking like because I think it’s going to look really great. 

Melissa Clark – Miami County 

Overall, things are very wet here since we’ve received probably nine inches of rain so far in August. There is water standing in some fields, and with that much moisture, there’s probably some disease pressure out there. At this point, though, we haven’t been out much to see exactly what’s developing, so we’ll likely spend some time scouting fields over the next couple of weeks to get a better idea of what’s out there. 

As far as potential yield impacts, it’s still a little early to say with confidence. Looking at everything from a distance and without doing full-on scouting, I would say we may see a little effect from all the rain, but nothing that appears detrimental like what I’ve seen reported in some other areas. Right now, I think yields will remain pretty steady, with maybe a slight negative impact in some fields.  

Aside from monitoring crops, we’re also working on getting equipment ready for harvest, which is hard to believe is right around the corner. We’re finishing up some of the last grain hauling, and we’ll probably have another round of hay to make soon as well. At this point, there’s still a lot of uncertainty. You can scout all you want and look at everything, but we’ll really find out how the crop performed once harvest gets underway.