By Paige Harden, The Republic
pharden@therepublic.com
Severe drought conditions have pushed harvest activity ahead in Indiana.
With August bringing just a third of the normal amount of rainfall to an already-dry summer, Bartholomew County has been classified as suffering a severe drought.
The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln lists four increasingly serious levels of drought - moderate, severe, extreme and exceptional.
The drought has caused watering restrictions and conservation pleas in some parts of Indiana, including Marion County and Bedford, though not the Columbus area.
But as lawns and fields dry out, officials warn it means an increased fire hazard. That led to the canceling of fireworks at the upcoming hospice concert.
Drought also stresses lawns and gardens, and leads to increased death rates in livestock, wildlife and fish.
Crop prices, and consequently food prices, can be affected by drought.
"If corn has weather stress, it tends to give up a little sooner than it would have under good growing conditions," said Chris Hurt, Purdue University agricultural economist. "That also speeds up harvest time."
Hurt said corn grows rapidly in hot conditions.
"Corn is a plant that requires heat units," he said. "In a summer with more heat than we would expect everything moved faster, including pollination. The growth cycle was advanced by the heat."
Hurt said 10 percent of Indiana's corn already is mature.
"Once corn reaches maturity it's at a state at which even if conditions became beautiful the corn still would not add yield," he said. "It just gives up."
Corn yields in central and southern Indiana are expected to be low, Hurt said, and plant damage could be a major culprit.
"When the plant is as dry as it is there is a concern that it will break off," Hurt said. "If it rains now or we get a strong wind the corn could be knocked down. It's difficult to pick up when it is lying on the ground."
Once mature, corn begins losing moisture.
"In heat like this, corn will dry very rapidly," Hurt said. "At maturity, corn has about 35 percent moisture. You want it to be at 18 percent to harvest. With temperatures in the 90s you could see corn lose more than a percentage point of moisture a day."
That means corn will be ready to harvest much earlier than most years.
"Soybeans are typically harvested first, and corn is harvested into mid-October," Hurt said. "This year the corn and soybean harvests will basically be laying on top of each other. This creates additional concern about getting all of the crops in. Farmers are going to wish for more hours in the day."
While soybeans are generally more drought-tolerant than corn, Hurt said if we do not see rain in the next couple of weeks, soybean yields could be worse than corn.
"The critical growth period for corn is in July, and we had some decent weather in that month," he said. "The critical period for soybeans is August, and we've had very little rain. Soybeans have experienced nothing but stress this entire month.
"As long as the soybean plant is still green it is trying to produce yield. Most soybeans in Indiana are still green, but if we don't get rain soon it's going to look bad."
Hurt said the market will not likely reflect Indiana's drought conditions.
"The rain has hardly stopped in Iowa," he said. "We are still looking at a record size U.S. corn crop, and the national crop determines the big picture on prices."
While yields are down, Hurt said prices are higher than early estimates.
"The prices for both corn and soybeans are higher than what we expected in the winter, so that's a good thing," Hurt said.
Corn could sell for close to $3 a bushel and soybeans for $8 a bushel, Hurt said. Last year corn sold for closer to $2 while soybeans sold for about $5.75 he said.
"We really thought we were going to have an outstanding income year," Hurt said. "There will be a lot of variation, but I think we are certainly going to see crop insurance claims."
In the field
Bartholomew County farmer Don Schroer began harvesting corn last week.
"The corn is so droughtstricken that it's not going to stand very long, it's just so brittle," Schroer said. "I felt like if we wanted to salvage any of it we better start now."
Schroer, who farms land southwest of Columbus, said his first field yielded half of what he expected.
"We will have to file an insurance claim on that one," he said. "That won't make us any money but it will at least allow us to farm another year."
He said his second field, which looked better, yielded 115 bushels of corn per acre. The average for this area, according to USDA, is 160 bushels per acre.
Schroer said the harvested corn is at 22 percent moisture and will need to be dried in a bin.
"It will dry down pretty quickly," he said. "I feel our field losses could be quite a bit higher if we leave it in the fields. And with only 50 percent yield I will have plenty of storage."
Darren Otte, who also farms southwest of Columbus, started chopping corn for silage a week before he did last year. He said he plans to wait another two weeks to begin regular corn harvest.
"The corn really dried up; the sun just zapped the moisture out," he said. "We are right on the border for filing for insurance. It's not a total disaster, but it's not as good as we would hope for."
Drought effect
Phillip Gray, hydrometeorological technician at the Indianapolis Bureau of the National Weather Service, said there is no real reason for the summer drought.
"We have just had a weather pattern that has kept most of the weather systems in the northern tier of the U.S.," he said. "And it has not changed in the past few months."
Gray said he expects the weather pattern to remain for the next couple of weeks.
"We aren't going to see any major changes," he said.
According to AccuWeather.com, as of Wednesday Columbus has received 1.19 inches of rain in August. The normal amount received by Aug. 29 is 3.42 inches.
Matt Noblitt, Columbus Fire Department public information officer, said drought conditions have made vegetation more susceptible to fire.
"We have had at least four grass fires in the past month," Noblitt said. "It's really important that people don't just discard cigarettes out of their car windows."
He said even controlled camp fires are not a good idea.
"It would take two or three inches of rain to reduce the hazard," Noblitt said. "It's just that dry."
The fireworks at Saturday's hospice concert were cancelled as a result of the fire hazard, Noblitt said.