We’ve been hearing of surprisingly strong yield results across the state for both corn and soybeans early on this harvest season. Purdue Extension’s Dan ‘Corn’ Quinn and ‘Soybean Shaun’ Casteel joined me Friday morning for a new Purdue Crop Chat Podcast episode to discuss harvest numbers. Quinn says he’s experiencing higher than anticipated yield numbers in his trials, and he’s hearing from a lot of farmers.
“The sentiment, at least from the ones I’ve talked to, is, ‘Where the blank did these come from?’ These yields are coming from really good areas, some of our best fields here in West Lafayette. I talked to some farmers in the Delphi and Flora area, which is really good ground over there… I was crunching numbers this morning and the three number came about on one of our treatment averages- 300 bushel!”
Casteel says soybean yields are bit more variable, but still impressive in areas.
“Field averages in the mid-80s. I’ve certainly had some trials that I’ve been ticking on the 90-bushel mark. But I’ve also got the other fields that we ran this week that were drought stressed, no-till conditions, and we were lucky to get 45 to 55-bushel mark. The no-till acres, soybeans have looked tough all year long and those are ones that are still kind of getting hit. But I will echo, we’ve got some pretty phenomenal looking yields.”
Casteel isn’t the only one surprised by some of these yields.
“I got an email just a day or two ago that said, ‘Shaun- this is 10 to 20 bushels higher than I expected these beans to go!’”
While this is great news to hear, it might be a bit too early to get too excited. Quinn explains that he’s interested to see how corn yields look in Northeast Indiana that struggled to emerge and then caught the drought.
Casteel has stressed timely planting throughout the season. Some might call that early planting, but he thinks the earlier, or timely, planted soybeans did have a big advantage this year.
“Some of the later planted beans are going to get hit a little bit harder. I just don’t think they got the seed fill that this first crop that’s already been pulled out has gotten.”
We also discuss what kind of year no-till and cover crop acres had this year on the Purdue Crop Chat, found now below or wherever you listen to podcasts.
