Planting is nearly complete across the state with 86 percent of Indiana’s corn and 81 percent of the state’s soybeans in the ground. However, late-season frost last Saturday night caused significant damage to corn that’s already been planted north of Fort Wayne.
“As far as Noble County right now, it’s basically in God and Mother Nature’s hands,” says Tom Griffiths, a corn and soybean producer based near Kendallville in northeastern Indiana. He’s also a director on the United Soybean Board (USB).
He tells Hoosier Ag Today that many of his neighbors have been dealing with the effects from frost.
“In some of the low-lying areas, the corn was burnt severely—and in some cases, it was completely dead,” he says. “Now, these are extremely spotty places. I don’t know if anybody will go in there and replant, but I’m sure those farmers will wait-and-see in a few days what comes out of that.”
“Then, it seemed to be the better stands that were impacted by frost,” says Griffiths. “If your corn was small, it didn’t appear to get hurt. But, if you had some corn that was 8-to-10 inches tall, it was impacted quite a bit.”
He says the weather has been cooperative in his area and that he’s had most of his planting tackled weeks ago.
“I actually planted my last field of corn on May 9,” he says. “Then, I was practically done with soybeans—all except for one field that is notoriously a problem every year, and I just finished that up three days ago.”
Griffiths says he’s glad that planting season is now in the rear-view mirror.
“The rest of this month looks like it’s going to be pretty easy,” he says. “I’m done with planting. I’m done with my first cutting of hay, for the most part. If the rain holds off, I’ll be about 70-percent done with side-dressing corn!” he says.
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