After missing critical reports in October, USDA announced on Friday that several key November reports will be published despite the lingering government shutdown. Previously scheduled to be released on November 10, USDA says they will release the Crop Production and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) reports on November 14.
So, we’ll have harvest data soon enough, but in the meantime let’s check in with farmers from around the state in our final Crop Tour Tuesday of the harvest season. It’s the final one because, for the most part, harvest is wrapping up around the state, including in Northern Indiana’s LaPorte County.
“We are currently rolling along with commercial corn harvest,” explains Indiana Soybean Alliance Chair Denise Scarborough. “We have most of our cover crops planted at this point. We’re still trying to get in a little bit of rye going in behind the combine. We have been fortunate; we’ve been pretty dry. Our corn moisture is still a tick up there, so some days we’re catching the dryer. Our corn yields are doing better than we anticipated given how dry we were the growing season. Hopefully we’ll be wrapping up within the next week or so.”
In Southern Indiana, National Corn Board member J.R. Roesner is also close to wrapping up in Dubois County.
“There’s just a handful of crops left out in the field. It looks like we’ll have several days here this week to wrap things up, we may be able to get out and do a little bit of field work towards the latter half of the week. We have had some rain that has kept us out of the field and the ground is starting to get to where we won’t be able to do a whole lot of things out in the field anymore. The crop, overall, has been good. Some places have been better than others, but overall, we’ve had a pretty fair crop.”
Central Indiana seems to be where farmers have had the best luck with harvest progress.
“We’re wrapped up with harvest,” explains Ryan Rippy, who farms in Tippecanoe, Montgomery, and Fountain counties. “As I’m driving around, I’m not seeing a whole lot of crop left in the field. I’d say we’re probably less than 10% in this area of crop standing. So, we’re getting pretty well wound down. We’re still working on some fall burndown herbicide applications and working on some lime. We have a little bit of fall tillage left to do and we’ll probably start to work on fall fertilizer here as well pretty soon.”
In East Central Indiana, Jenna Scott reports from Cox Farms Incorporated in Delaware County.
“We finished up our harvest last week. So, it was nice to have everything done, cleaned up and put away. I have some family members that have some double crop beans and some replanted corn that aren’t quite ready yet to get out of the fields. But in general, I would say, driving around, it looks like everybody’s making a lot of good headway and looking to finish up here soon.”
