About This Episode
Shay Foulk collects two planting reports from opposite ends of Indiana. Andy farms the far northeast corner, about 10 miles from Michigan and 12 from Ohio, and is just over half done. He got field work finished in March and early April, started planting April 13, and had a strong April run on both corn and beans. Since May 1 he has planted exactly one day, having caught eight tenths last week and an inch of rain plus snow on Sunday.
What is left on his farm is heavier ground waiting to dry, with some sandier acres he can still get on. His seed customers range from finished with corn and into beans to barely started, and progress improves toward Michigan and thins out to the south. He is not worried, and neither is anyone he talks to, because after 2019 a delay in early or mid May does not rattle people when a crop can go in that fast.
Brad Downing near Kokomo in central Indiana has the harder story. April was cold, rains kept overshooting the forecast, and then a Mother's Day flood dropped 2.5 to 3.5 inches in a day, followed by four straight nights in the low 30s with heavy frost. He has 200 acres of corn planted, about 20 percent, no beans, and estimates the area average under 20 percent with many farms at zero. He is staying with 115-day corn.
“It's a hurry up and wait. It's a hurry up and panic.”
— Brad Downing
Key Takeaways
Northeast Indiana started planting April 13 and had a good April, then managed only one planting day between May 1 and this May 14 recording.
Sunday's storm brought an inch of rain topped with snow in the northeast corner; heavier ground is the acreage still waiting.
Central Indiana took 2.5 to 3.5 inches during the Mother's Day flood, then four consecutive nights in the low 30s with frost each morning around 6 a.m.
Downing had 200 acres of corn in, roughly 20 percent, with no beans; he puts the area average under 20 percent and says many farms had nothing planted.
He plans to hold 115-day hybrids through the end of May and only back off to 111 or 112 starting June 1, citing 2019 when 112 to 115 day corn planted the first week of June yielded best.
Tile lines were running nearly full and creeks were still out of their banks, so soil at 6 to 8 inches stayed saturated.
Full Transcript
Shay: Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Ag View Pitch. We're here today with Andy out of Indiana and Brad later on with crop updates. Andy, if you could tell the listeners here where you're located and kind of how things are coming along for you here this year.
Andy: Yeah, good morning, Shay. We're in the very northeast corner Corner, Indiana. We're about 10 miles from Michigan and about 12 miles from Ohio, for kind of lamest terms. Planting's coming along good. It's kind of broad spectrum here. Personally, on our farm, we're just over half done. I have some seed customers that are done with corn and working on beans, and some that have just barely gotten started. As you get closer to Michigan, there's quite a bit more done, but you go south of here and it gets pretty scarce.
Shay: From a perspective standpoint, how does that compare to a normal year? Have you guys been pretty wet here this spring, or what do things look like?
Andy: Yeah, I wouldn't say we've been super wet. We've been just wet enough to stay out of the field. We got a lot of field work done in March. And first part of April. We started planting the 13th of April and had a really good run in the month of April for both corn and beans, but in May, since May 1st, we've only planted one day. It's just been a couple tenths here. Last week we got 8 tenths, and then Sunday we got an inch of rain and then topped with some snow even. So we're hoping that, well, later today that we'll be able to get out and do some stuff, but Yeah, that's, that's kind of where we're at.
Shay: And I was going to ask you what that looks like. I know the weather here looks pretty decent, maybe through the middle or end of the weekend here. You think a lot of crop will get put in the ground in the next 4 or 5 days here?
Andy: I would say some will get put in the ground. For most guys, what's left is heavier stuff that, you know, kind of the sandier stuff got planted last week or the week before. We're just kind of waiting for some of the heavier ground to dry out. We got some sandier ground left that we can get on, so that's what we're going to do. And yeah, that's that. And we started mowing cover crops yesterday. I'm going to start mowing alfalfa today with hopes of chopping starting Thursday.
Shay: Oh, that's good. Hopefully some of that field work will continue here. And when you look out into the 10-day forecast, looks like a fair amount of rain. May be moving through the area next week. Any concern with some of the farmers that you've been talking about, or what's the sentiment here as we kind of wrap up or start looking at the finish line of planting in 2021 here?
Andy: Yeah, no, no concerns. I mean, we're thankful for the rain compared to most parts, and you know, definitely can't complain about that. I think after 2019, we don't get too worked up about kind of getting delayed a little bit the first part of May or middle of May here. It seems like it can get put in the ground so quick that I don't have anybody I know that's getting real excited yet or real nervous about it.
Shay: That's good to hear, and it's interesting how regional some of this stuff is, just looking at weather conditions. So glad to hear things are coming along well. Anything else going on here this spring that you think might be interesting for listeners across the country to kind of know about your area?
Andy: No, nothing out of the ordinary, I guess.
Shay: That's good to hear, other than crop prices are going to the moon and no one really knows where they're going after that.
Andy: So yeah, yeah, it's a wild ride that we're fortunate for.
Shay: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Andy, I appreciate you taking the time to join us here for a crop update this morning. And, you know, just for the rest of your crew there, hope everyone stays safe and have a good rest of your planting season.
Andy: All right, thanks, Shay.
Shay: And now down to Brad Downing in the central part of Indiana. How's it going over your way, Brad?
Brad: Good. Wet. We've got snorkels on and everything else, but we're still wet.
Shay: So it sounds like— good, doing well here. Sounds like you maybe caught a little bit more rain than Andy's had in northern Indiana. What does that look like here over the last couple weeks for you guys?
Brad: Well, it has been the whole month of April. You could have planted early, but it was extremely cold. Conditions were good. Through the first week of April, and then from there on out, we were just catching a rain every now and then. If they would call for it to be 2 or 3 tenths, it would end up being a half inch to 3/4 inch. And then you'd have a stretch there, you may have 2 or 3 days you really could work ground or maybe do things that were a little tacky, maybe making some mistakes. And then by April 24th, 25th, 26th, you could have planted, followed up by another inch of rain. Extreme cold temperatures afterwards. Here lately, it's been the Mother's Day flood. Last year we had the Mother's Day freeze, this year it's the Mother's Day flood. So we had anywhere from here local around Kokomo, Greentown, central, north central Indiana, anywhere from 2.5 to 3.5 inches of rain.
Just depends on which one you're at. And that all came during Sunday.
Shay: You and I were joking about lighting the fires and maybe getting things heated up there over a little bit, and it seems that weather stayed pretty cool here, at least for the next few days, maybe heating up towards the weekend. But also looks like that might be bringing some more rain on the way.
Andy: Is that right?
Brad: Yeah, yeah. We've got so much saturation in the soil now, and any kind of heat we're going to have is going to spur up some moisture in the air. And it could be thunderstorms, could not be. But it was interesting on Monday. We had after that 2.5 to 3.5-inch rain on Monday, my daughter had a softball game about 25 miles west of here, and we were there that night. There was no rain in the forecast or anything, and it just clouded up, got black, and rained another 2, 3 tenths right then, thundered, lightning, everything. And the way it went, and the temperature went from— it had warmed up a little bit. It was a nice, balmy 48 degrees, so it dropped to 38 degrees in about 30 minutes. And then every night around here for the last 4 nights, we've had it in the low 30s. This morning was 32 degrees. Every morning around 6 o'clock, you've had a heavy frost on everything.
Shay: Interesting. Yeah, and that cold weather, not great growing conditions for the corn and soybeans that are up. What does the planting progress look like in your operation? And then how would you kind of map that out for your general area?
Brad: Currently, we're probably about the average of everybody, maybe even slightly behind the average of everybody, but we've only got 200 acres in the ground, so we're only, you know, 20% done on corn. We've got no beans in the ground, and some of the larger operators that moved in that early April time period and then had a 2-day period there at late April planting, some are a third done on corn. Some are a third done to half done on beans. But I would say the average across everywhere is probably less than 20%. And there are a lot of farms, and I do mean a lot of farms, that have nothing in the ground, period.
Shay: So is there a fair amount of concern? I mean, looking at the calendar and the timeline here, of course, you know, probably some of our more opportunistic windows on yield and timeliness have long since passed. How are farmers kind of handling what they're seeing in your area?
Brad: It's a hurry up and wait. It's a hurry up and panic. A lot of conversation, a lot of different conversations going on about what we're doing from a hybrid standpoint. It's still too early in my book and everything we've done on research from hybrid standpoint. We're still going to be planting 115-day, at least right here in central, north central Indiana. We'll be planting 115-day. All the way up to the end of May. Starting June 1st, yeah, I'll probably feel back to the latest I'll go is maybe a 111, 112. But we'll have to make that decision as we go, just because I know there's— you go back to '15, '17, '19, seems to be the odd years here in the last 10 years just produce wet conditions in spring.
But those years, I mean, you go back to '19 alone, if you would have stuck with the program on 112 to 115 day and you've got it planted there the first week of June, Granted, we had great GDUs and heat through the month of September and October, but that was the highest yielding corn that year in that maturity range. Ultimately speaking, I think we're going to stay the course, keep doing what we can. You joked about lighting fires. Yeah, if we could have some solar radiation and some fires lit across a couple hundred acres here, maybe we'd get enough heat to dry this thing out. We got some rain forecast over the weekend, and if that happens, that's going to shut everybody down. Even if we get a tenth or two, that'll shut everybody down for another couple weeks— or another couple days, sorry.
Shay: Right. Any movement here in the next few days with a little bit of a drier outlook, or are you still too wet yet?
Brad: If it would heat up. Like right now, it's currently 45 degrees at 9 o'clock in the morning. Sun's out, solar radiation is helping evapotranspiration and getting water off the ground. If you dig down— yesterday we were fixing some ditches and fixing some ditch holes. You dig down 6, 8 inches, it's pretty saturated. There's going to have to be a lot of evapotranspiration happening. There's going to have to be a lot of water movement. Checking some tile lines out into the open ditches, they're running almost full. We've got some of the creeks and rivers that are starting to recede a little bit, but they're still out of their banks as of yesterday evening, so I haven't checked them this morning.
Shay: Well, we will pray for some, some heat and some wind over in your area to hopefully get things dried out, and hope those showers next week kind of stay away from your area. Brad, thanks for taking the time to give us a crop update there from central Indiana, and stay safe over there. For the next few weeks.
Brad: Will do. Thanks, Jay. Y'all have a good one.
Shay: And thank you everyone for listening to another episode of the Ag View Pitch, and we will catch you next time.