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Lack of rainfall leaves Ohio crops feeling dry

An Ohio farmer and United Soybean Board chair says his crops are feeling the pressure from the lack of recent rainfall.

Steve Reinhard says his area is dry.

“We’re a little bit on the dry side, just getting into that moderate drought territory, but the weather man said some rainfall and that should help us to mitigate that,” he says.

According to the latest crop progress and conditions report from the USDA, corn is rated ​66 percent good to excellent with ​81 percent silking. Soybeans are ​rated ​63 percent good to excellent, with ​83 percent blooming.

He tells Brownfield he’s hopeful for a longer growing season.

“We’re probably approaching 3 weeks behind on some of the corn we planted all of our soybeans early trying to get a head start on that maturity and pod development flowering and then planted the corn 2nd,” he says.

The second cutting of alfalfa is ​96​ percent complete, and the second hay cutting is ​73 percent complete.

Oats are ​97 percent headed, ​85 percent mature, and 54 percent harvested.

Topsoil moisture is ​38 percent adequate to surplus and subsoil moisture is ​42 percent adequate to surplus.