By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — There’s uncertainty and concern with this year’s corn and soybean crops in Indiana.
Usually, farm experts have a better idea of how Hoosier crops are shaping up by this time of the year, but a dry August has complicated that outlook.
“Ultimately, we’ve just had a very dry August. Unbelievably dry in many parts of the state,” said Eric Pfeiffer, president of Hoosier Ag Today. “Boy, if you got some rain, you got lucky.”
He says traditionally, when a major weather front passes through the region, farmers could count on large swaths of the state receiving rain, but that has changed in recent years.
Now, rain coverage is more spotty, he said.
“It can rain on one acre and you don’t get anything on the next. That’s just the reality the farmers are living in right now,” he said.
He attributes it to shifting climate patterns
“You got guys on one side of the road and will say, ‘I’ve got record yields for both corn and beans, and then a person on the other side of the road that says, ‘Nope, not this year.”
“It’s in bad shape,” he added.
The US Department of Agriculture put out their expectations last month and predicted record yields for Indiana corn and soybeans, but Pfeifer said those were based on conditions on Aug. 1.
Those predictions were the topic of a podcast by Hoosier Ag Today.
“The yield predictions were pretty far off for USDA,” Pfeiffer said.
He said there may be some clarity in the next projections expected to be released this month.
