(La Porte County, IN) - Corn yields in northern Indiana and southern Michigan could vary greatly due to precipitation ranging from plentiful to scarce.

 

It’s been dry enough in places like Wanatah and LaCrosse that some corn plants have cobs with just 20 to 30 percent of the kernels.

 

Yield projections are much better just 10 to 15 miles to the north toward Westville where rainfall totals were enough for corn plants to completely fill out their cobs.

 

Farmer Matt Schafer of LaCrosse said it’s still too early to say with certainty what yields are going to be in his fields come harvest time but some of his corn right now is “less than stellar in spots.”

 

“It’s going to depend what rain clouds you were fortunate enough to be under especially with corn,” he said.

 

Jeff Mitzner of Wanatah is expecting a 50 percent yield reduction in some of his corn plants from a year ago.  He said the losses will be greater in his non-irrigated fields in sandier soil but even some of his irrigated corn is showing signs of struggle.

 

Mitzner said he wouldn’t be surprised to see corn yields ranging from as high as 250 to as low as 100 bushels per acre.

 

He placed much of the blame in his area on a severe lack of rainfall and extreme heat during a six week period beginning in early June. 

 

He said the dryness and hot temperatures during that period killed some of the pollen in the tassels of corn that plants use to self-pollinate and generate kernels on the cobs.

 

There’s been some major rain events in recent weeks but some areas like southern La Porte County seemed to receive much lower amounts of precipitation from the same storms moving across the region.

 

Mitzner said it’s still dry enough in his area for the water table to be low enough to make it difficult for irrigation systems to draw enough water from their wells.

 

“There’s still places that are plenty dry,” he said.

 

Mark Parkman said the corn and soybeans in his fields in the Westville area seem to be in good shape from receiving adequate precipitation just as conditions were becoming dry throughout the growing season.

 

“I really have nothing to complain about.  It looks like we’re doing o.k. right now,” he said.

 

It’s almost too late for the recent rains to help fill out the ears since the grain fill period in corn ends soon.    Soybeans will benefit more from rain with several weeks remaining for those plants to finish filling their pods.

 

“It won’t be as good of a crop as we’ve had in the past few years,” Mitzner said.