HARVEST: Jim Miller offloads the corn to a hopper truck during the corn harvest at the Miller Farm’s fields at 400 West and 200 North in Howard County
Despite dealing with drought conditions throughout Indiana, there is some good economic news for farmers this fall.
Mike Silver, senior grain merchant at Kokomo Grain, said he has never seen prices so high at harvest time in the past.
Silver said corn is selling at $7.54 per bushel and soybeans are selling at $15.96 per bushel as of Friday.
“The yields are variable,” Silver said as farmers have started the process of harvesting both corn and soybeans. “The yields are better in the Kokomo area than in the rest of the state.”
Silver said corn yields are between 30 and 40 bushels below the five year average per acre. He said the yields are running between 130 and 170 bushels per acre instead of the normal 180 to 230 bushels per acre.
“The soybean yields are better than expected,” he said. “In some areas a hailstorm took a toll on the crop. The late summer rain helped the beans, but not the corn.”
Bob Nielson, an agronomist at Purdue University, said as expected the yields across the state are all over the board.
“It’s a mixed bag,” he said, “but generally everything is lower than normal.”
Nielson said at some test fields operated by Purdue University the corn yields are 80 to 90 bushels per acre instead of in the 160 bushel per acre range.
Farmers in the southern half of the state were impacted to a larger extent by the drought than in other areas of Indiana, he said. He said some farmers lost their entire corn crop.
“The soybean fields are looking good,” Nielson said. “That’s a reflection of the August rains. The soybean yields should be normal or a little better than normal.”
He said in trial fields Purdue is seeing a lower soybean yield.
Nielson said the yields will depend on the soil type and how well it holds moisture.
“It will all depend on where the fields are located,” he said.
Nielson said the one saving grace is the prices.
“If farmers can take advantage of the prices, their income could be equal to last year,” he said. “But many of contracted their crops at a lower price.”
Nielson and Silver both agreed that the recent rains in August and September are starting to replenish the subsoil moisture that was depleted during the drought.
“It’s helping,” Silver said “There’s still a long way to go.”
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