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Harvest is underway for NW Indiana farmer, and yields are down

Northwest Indiana farmer Denise Scarborough says the hot, dry weather has had a significant impact on soybean yields.

She says they started harvest on Monday and beans were testing 11 percent moisture, but the stems are still green.  “We were surprised at that as how dry they were,” she says. “Yields are actually down. We have a lot of irrigation on our farm, and this is actually an irrigated field we’re about 10 to 15 bushels off from what t we typically get or hope to get for our irrigated fields.”

She tells Brownfield like most years, white mold has been a challenge.  “I’m so close to Lake Michigan so we just don’t sometimes get enough sunshine,” she says.  “A lot of overcast days and then with us irrigating, it’s just one of the things we always kind of struggle with every year. But there’s been some sudden deaths that hit the area due to that hot, really dry weather.”

Scarborough says they haven’t started cutting soybeans on their dryland acres and it may be a few days before they get started in those fields.

AUDIO: Indiana farmer Denise Scarborough, Harvest Update