I'm just back from a family vacation in the Outerbanks of North Carolina. On the very long drive from home (the Chicago suburbs) to my hometown in Ohio and then south to North Carolina and back, I had a chance to see first-hand how the corn and soybean crops were faring. And I have to say, it was worse than I expected.
Image courtesy of AccuWeather.com
On July 3rd, we drove down I-65 through Indianapolis, Indiana and then across I-70 through Columbus, Ohio - so pretty much in the center of the states. The crop conditions I saw were not as bad in that central part of the state. A lot of corn still looked strong and green with curling leaves seen mostly on the field edges. Again, this was earlier in the month.
On our way home July 15th, we drove across I-80 - the northern part of Ohio and Indiana - and saw much more drought damage. I saw a few decent corn fields, but the majority of the fields were in bad shape and I saw a few that will be a total loss. Where the corn was tasseling, it was uneven and had not reached its full height.
Soybean fields, on the other hand, were faring much better. I saw some drought damage, but for the most part, the bean fields looked much better.
In June, USDA was projecting a record 166 bushels of corn per acre to be harvested this fall.
But as of mid-July, that projected yield has been reduced to 146 bushels per acre.
AccuWeather.com agricultural meteorologists expect this figure is likely to go lower and are now projecting the corn yield to be around 138 bushels per acre.
As for this week, AccuWeather.com says from southern Illinois, south to Arkansas, west to Nebraska and Kansas, high temperatures will range between 95 and 100 degrees. Farther north and east, high temperatures will range between 90 and 95 degrees into Wednesday with some relief from the heat later in the week.
On a separate note… on Wednesday, I'll be attending the Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies 2012 conference in Litchfield, Illinois. I'll fill you in next week on what I learn!
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