Highest Corn Yield Average Predicted for Indiana Ever?
Brian Grete was making his way through Illinois this morning on the eastern leg of the 2021 Pro Farmer Crop Tour, but his mind was on Indiana.
“It’s the best Indiana corn crop I’ve ever seen,” Grete told Davis Michaelsen on AgriTalk. “You don’t see quite the consistency there like in Illinois and Iowa, but boy, it looks really consistent this year. There is some pocketed dryness in the west-central parts of the state, but they’re sitting on a terrific crop if they can get it to the finish line,” adds Grete, Pro Farmer editor and leader of the eastern leg of the tour.
Pro Farmer scouts pegged the Indiana average yield estimate at 193.48 bu. per acre on Tuesday, compared to the 2020 estimate of 179.84 bu. per acre – a 7.6% increase.
"USDA currently estimates the Indiana corn crop yield at 194 bu. per acre which would be 5 bushels per acre greater than the state record yield average produced in 2018 (189 bushels per acre) and a 7 bu. per acre increase from the 2020 state yield average (187 bushels per acre)," according to Dan Quinn, Purdue University Extension corn specialist, in the Pest & Crop Newsletter, issued Aug. 13.
“The predicted value of 194 bushels per acre is also the highest yield average predicted for Indiana from an August USDA crop report,” Quinn writes. “Furthermore, this predicted yield average value also ranks Indiana second in the corn belt in predicted yield average behind Illinois, which has a predicted yield average of 214 bushels per acre.” The complete article is available at USDA Crop Report Predicts State Record Corn Yield For Indiana
Figure 1: Current 2021 USDA Crop Report predicted yield average in comparison to Historic Indiana State Corn Yield Average (1866 – 2020).
The USDA Weekly Crop Progress Report issued on Monday (Aug. 16) estimates that 72% of the Indiana corn crop is in good-to-excellent condition.
For soybeans, the USDA on Monday said 68% of the state’s crop is rated good to excellent.
The weekly report also noted that the “dog days of summer” are starting to contribute to a decline in crop conditions.
On the western leg of the tour, Chip Flory noted that the irrigated corn in Nebraska is in good shape while dryland corn is registering lower in scouts’ yield checks.
“That’s normally the case,” says Flory, AgriTalk host. “However, while dryland corn is usually 20 to 25 bu. per acre off of the irrigated corn, this year it looks to be off 35 to 40 bushels.”
Still, Nebraska corn is holding its own. Scouts there pegged the state’s average yield estimate at 182.35 bu. per acre yesterday, compared to the 2020 estimate of 175.15 bu. per acre – a 4.1% increase
For soybeans, scouts anticipate lower yields this year. They counted an average of 801.65 pods per 3’ row on Tuesday, compared to 846.77 in 2020 – a 5.3% decrease.
“Both the corn and soybeans crops need a drink to wrap things up here in Nebraska,” Flory says. “Without rain, the dryland crop will be significantly worse a week from now than it is currently.”
This afternoon, Flory and scouts will make their way from Nebraska City to Spencer, Iowa, covering the western 40% of the state.
“Honestly, there are widely mixed expectations among the scouts on what we’ll see,” he says. “Some scouts expect more of the same of what we’ve seen the first two days of the tour. Others think we’ll get a look at a corn crop that will out-perform the below-average rainfall seen in 2021.”
Preliminary Day 3 Route Report
