By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH

Indiana Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The corn and soybean harvest is underway across the region, with several states falling behind last year’s pace, according to the USDA.

Farmers in Van Wert County in northwestern Ohio began their harvest in earnest last week, said Curtis Young, Ohio State University extension agent for agriculture and natural resources in the county.

“As of Friday (Sept. 22), there was hardly anything – maybe just a couple of fields,” he noted. “But today (Sept. 26) was probably a very active day, especially for soybeans. The rest of this week, they’ll be working hot and heavy,” he said.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything coming up (in the weather) that would stop them. The temperatures are going to be near normal. Once they get the kinks out of their machinery, they will be hard at work.”

A lot of fields in the county still weren’t ready for harvest last week, Young said. The fields hadn’t dried down as much as some farmers would prefer.

The warmer-than-usual weather that covered the region through the early part of last week probably didn’t impact the corn crop, he said. “Any opportunity to produce a better kernel size with more moisture is long gone. The soybeans could have taken advantage of any additional moisture,, but we just didn’t get it.”

Illinois farmers had harvested 11 percent of their corn crop, up from 5 percent at the same time last year, according to the Sept. 25 Crop Progress report from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

Indiana’s harvest was at 10 percent, down from last year’s 14 percent; Iowa, 3 percent, down from 4 percent; Kentucky, 36 percent, down from 56 percent; Michigan, 4 percent, up from 1 percent; Ohio, 3 percent, down from 7 percent; and Tennessee, 59 percent, down from 76 percent.

For soybeans, 9 percent of the crop had been harvested in Illinois, up from 1 percent in 2016; Indiana, 10 percent, up from 8 percent; Iowa, 1 percent, down from 3 percent; Kentucky, 9 percent, down from 12 percent; Michigan, 4 percent, up from 1 percent; Ohio, 5 percent, unchanged; and Tennessee, 6 percent, down from 13 percent.

Farmers in Clay and Owen counties in west-central Indiana were making progress last week, said Bob Bruner, Purdue University extension educator for agriculture and natural resources in both counties. The harvest in Clay County was 15-25 percent complete, with about 5 percent finished in Owen County.

The counties were among several in the northern, central, west-central and southwestern parts of Indiana rated as either in moderate drought or abnormally dry in the latest U.S. Drought Monitor, released Thursday.

Producers taking their grain to elevators were reporting a moisture content of about 25 percent in corn and 16 percent in soybeans, he said. The dry weather hasn’t impacted moisture content much yet, Bruner said.

“As the season continues, dry-down will probably be happening much quicker,” he explained. “Most of the summer, we had pretty significant amounts of rain. It started to dry out in late July.”

Bruner said it’s too early to have a good estimate on yields in the counties.

Hoosier farmers with late-planted or replanted corn and soybeans will have to wait to harvest those areas, as many were still fairly green, said Greg Matli, Indiana state statistician for NASS.

“In the drought areas, some double-cropped soybeans as well as mint fields were irrigated against the heat,” he noted. “Weed pressures were reported to be high in many fields, particularly in the south. Pasture conditions continued to decline from dry conditions. Some livestock farmers have begun to supplement with hay.”

Farmers in Carroll County, Tenn., were busy harvesting corn, said Kenny Herndon, director of the University of Tennessee extension office for the county.

“I have talked to several farmers who indicated that some of their fields had corn yields 10 to upwards of 50 more bushels per acre this year than last,” he explained. “Soybeans are turning yellow and some early-planted fields are ready to harvest.”

In Michigan, the hot weather significantly advanced apple maturity, according to Marlo Johnson, director of the NASS Great Lakes regional office. The temperatures did pose challenges to producers hoping to prepare apples for controlled atmosphere storage, she said.

Growers were harvesting McIntosh apples in the northwest, Gala in the Grand Rapids area, Honeycrisp in the west-central region, Empire, Golden Delicious and Honeycrisp in the southwest and Jonathan, Jonagold, Gala and Golden Delicious in the southeast.