What is in this article?:
- Indiana drought worst on crops since 1988
- Commodity markets watching
• As a majority of the corn crop enters the crucial and sensitive pollination period, there is little chance for recovery.
• Without rain and cooler temperatures, corn could lose up to 10 percent yield potential daily.
Indiana crop conditions continue to deteriorate daily as the drought worsens to a level not seen since 1988, Purdue Extension corn specialist Bob Nielsen said July 5.
The state's corn crop has fallen off such that only 19 percent was rated good to excellent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Nielsen said during a news conference at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. As of July 1, more than 90 percent of the crop acres were rated as short to very short for soil moisture.
As a majority of the corn crop enters the crucial and sensitive pollination period, there is little chance for recovery, Nielsen said. Without rain and cooler temperatures, he said, corn could lose up to 10 percent yield potential daily.
"A break in the drought and heat for the remainder of the season would certainly minimize further deterioration of the corn crop, but would not result in recovery to anywhere close to normal yields," he said.
Rain that parts of Indiana received in the past week prevented the drought from worsening, but more rain more often would be needed to bring the state out of drought. Most of the state continued to experience various intensity of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor update on Thursday. The southwest and northeast remained in extreme drought, the second-highest level of drought.
Purdue Extension agricultural economist Chris Hurt estimated that as of July 1, Indiana had already lost 20 percent of the expected corn yields — down to 133 bushels per acre, compared with 166 expected at spring planting.
Soybeans fared slightly better in the yield projections, down 15 percent at 41.3 bushels per acre instead of 48.6 bushels expected early in the season. Part of the reason is because soybeans still have time to recover somewhat with a return to more normal rainfall.
"Soybean yields are significantly related to August temperatures and precipitation," Hurt said. "There is still potential for yield recovery in soybeans up until late July and even into August."