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Dry weather deteriorating Michigan’s crop conditions

A farmer in Southeast Michigan says he’s only had about two good rains this entire growing season.

Blaine Baker tells Brownfield, “Someplace around the 4th of July, we were getting dangerously dry, and picked up about 3 inches.”

“Then about two weeks ago we picked up almost another 3 inches,” he shares.

He says corn looks average and no-till soybeans have been especially impacted by the dry conditions.

“It was extremely dry, so that chemistry just sat there,” he says. “There were beans in the neighborhood that up until about a month ago didn’t even look like they were going to be tall enough to get through the combine head.”

Baker grows corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and milks more than 500 cows in Clayton with his family.

In its latest crop progress report, USDA says Michigan’s corn is rated 45 percent good to excellent with 76 percent of the crop in the dough stage and 23 percent dented. Michigan’s soybean crop is rated 48 percent good to excellent, with 89 percent of the crop setting pods.