The USDA has lowered Indiana’s corn yield estimates to 186 bushels per acre, down three bushels from last month’s anticipated yield estimates and down nine bushels from last year.
However, Indiana’s farmers continue to anticipate record soybean yields this year, according the USDA’s Sept. 1 Crop Forecast.
Indiana farmers anticipate harvesting 5.05 million acres of corn, down 220 thousand acres from last year and 5.83 million acres of soybeans, up 190 thousand acres from last year.
“A dry August reduced anticipated Indiana corn yields,” says Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician with the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Indiana Field Office. “As of August 28, Indiana corn was 2 percent mature, five points lower than the 5-year average.”
“Indiana soybean yield is forecasted at 60 bushels per acre, unchanged from last month. If realized, this will be a record yield. As of Aug. 28, ninety percent of Indiana soybeans were setting pods, one point more than the five-year average,” says Warenski.
“The 2022 U.S. soybean crop is forecast at 4.38 billion bushels, down three percent from the previous forecast and down one percent from 2021. Based on conditions as of Sept. 1, yields are expected to average 50.5 bushels per acre, down 1.4 bushels from the previous forecast and down 0.9 bushel from 2021. Total planted area, at 87.5 million acres, is down one percent from the previous estimate but up less than one percent from the previous year. Area harvested for beans in the United States is forecast at 86.6 million acres, down one percent from the previous forecast but up less than one percent from 2021,” according to Warenski.
Meanwhile, Indiana’s corn crops are rated at 54 percent good-to-excellent according to the USDA’s Weekly Crop Progress Report for the week ending Sunday, Sept. 11. The percent remains unchanged for corn from the previous week. Ninety-seven percent of the state’s corn crop is in the dough stage and 73 percent is dented. Fifteen percent of the state’s corn crop is mature.
Indiana’s soybeans are rated at 56 percent good-to-excellent, which is also unchanged from the previous week. The USDA says 21 percent of the state’s soybeans are dropping leaves.
Across the rest of the country, 53 percent of the nation’s corn crop is rated good-to-excellent, which is a drop of one percent from the week before. Ninety-five percent of the country’s corn crop is in the dough stage and 77 percent is dented. Twenty-five percent of the nation’s corn crop is mature.
The U.S. soybean crop is at 56 percent good-to-excellent, which is also a drop of one percent from the previous week, with 97 percent setting pods and 22 percent dropping leaves.