Hoosier farmers are approaching the planting finish line. In their weekly report, USDA says 86% of Indiana corn and 81% of the state’s soybeans have been planted. Indiana corn is rated 70% good to excellent while soybeans are at 69%.
Let’s take one more trip around the state to check in with our farmers on our Hoosier Ag Today Crop Tour Tuesday segment!
East Central Indiana had been behind with planting for several weeks as they couldn’t catch a break from rains.
“We will finish up planting soybeans today,” explains Jenna Scott with Cox Farms in Delaware County. “And that will be it for us for the year. So, it’ll feel good to be done planting and then we’re just looking forward to seeing how things come up. We’ll be starting to do some plant stand counts and see how things get going with some warmer weather.”
It’s been a similar story in southern Indiana with rain pretty consistently in the forecast so far this spring.
“We were able to make some decent progress last week on planting,” shares Dubois County farmer J.R. Roesner. “We’re getting very close to having it wrapped up. We did receive some heavy rain towards the end of the week and over the weekend that has kept us out of the fields for the beginning of the week here. We also do look like we’re going to get some rain towards the end of the week as well. We are beginning to post spray both corn and soybeans, as well as side dressing the corn. Crops that are out of the ground look okay but definitely could use some dry weather and some sunshine.”
Denise Scarborough has provided dry updates throughout the season from northern Indiana’s LaPorte County. And while Denise is very funny, I’m not talking about her humor- it’s just been pretty dry up there for much of the spring.
“We received a little bit of rain last week, which was much needed. We’re hoping for another shower towards the end of the week. This week, we’re pretty much finished up with all of our planting. We do intercrop soybeans into our wheat, so that also started this week on our farm. Just kind of typical stuff right now, going through the spring trying to catch up on getting some spraying done now that we have all of our crops in the field.”
And in West Central Indiana, many farmers have been done with planting for some time now. Ryan Rippy shares what’s he and his neighbors are up to in Montgomery, Tippecanoe, and Fountain counties.
“So, we finished post-emerge spraying our corn last week, and we’re starting spraying post-emerge on beans today. So, we’re actually getting to spray some Enlist on some Pioneer Plenish beans for the first time, which is kind of exciting to us. I’ve been kind of watching what’s going on in the area. A lot of corn post-emerge spraying is still going on, a lot of side dress still going on in the area. I’ve seen a lot of hay cut. It’s probably going to be baled in the next couple days. So, quite a bit going on around here.”
Hoosier Ag Today wants to thank Rippy, Roesner, Scarborough, and Scott for providing updates throughout the planting season. We’ll check in with them periodically throughout the summer and then hopefully again this fall for harvest!
