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Dryness starting to creep into southwest Ohio

A southwest Ohio farmer says he’s starting to get concerned about the lack of recent rainfall. 

Eric Tipton says the crops are starting to stress.

“For the corn, we should hopefully be okay to get to the finish line,” he says. “The beans, with just the way that they look, we could really use one more shot of rain to finish them out. Looking at the forecast, I don’t know if that’s going to show.”

The USDA says Ohio corn is 97 percent silking, 77 percent in the dough stage, 16 percent dented, and rated 55 percent good to excellent. Soybeans are 97 percent blooming, 87 percent setting pods, and rated 56 percent good to excellent. 

He tells Brownfield variability will likely impact yield. 

“There’s going to be problematic areas in the field,” he says. “There’s absolutely no question about that. I’m hoping that some of the late July rains can make up for it the really good areas for where we lack in the bad. I still think that there’s some potential.”

Oats are 95 percent harvested.