Good West Central Indiana Crops May Not Hit USDA Estimates

In west central Indiana, corn and soybean crops are in very good shape overall but will they match what USDA has projected? In a Channel Seed growing season update, Channel Seed Pro Levi Riggs of Riggs Ag Solutions says that is doubtful.

“I think in my immediate area which is Danville, Indiana, we’re going to see an outstanding crop, but we got off to kind of a rough start in Indiana as a whole just with too much rain early,” he said. “You’ve got just way too much rain at planting all the way up through Lebanon and Kokomo and south of me, Clayton, US 40 South. We just had a really big struggle getting planted on time and just too much rain, so I think when the final numbers come in, you’ll see that we weren’t quite as good as what they predicted.”

Riggs covers Hendricks, Boone and Putnam counties, and part of the reason for strong crops has been minimal disease pressure.

“We have been spraying some fungicide,” he told HAT. “We have had some southern rust come in here late. Gray leaf spot has been kind of the bugaboo this year with disease, but tar spot just really hasn’t made much of an impact in our area too much, so that’s kind of been a blessing. But we did spray for some southern rust here recently.”

Timely rain has also been a big help.

“I don’t recall in August where we’ve received so much rain, especially up kind of in the northwest side around Attica. Those guys up in that area are getting some rains on some soybeans that we haven’t seen in August.”

Riggs is hoping for a stronger finish to soybeans than previously thought. Rain would help but there isn’t much of that in the next two weeks. He also hopes there is a window still open to add to grain fill in corn.

Hear more in the full HAT and Channel Seed growing season update: