Columbus, Ohio
October 23, 2007
Drought conditions throughout much
of Ohio this season have done little to slow the performance of
the soybean crop. In fact, growers could be looking at
near-record yields.
According to the Ohio
Agricultural Statistics Service, 86 percent of the crop has
been harvested, 35 percent higher than last year’s harvest and
ahead of the five-year average.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture yield forecast for Ohio
is 46 bushels per acre, one bushel shy of the state record.
“Yields are about 25 percent better than we expected. State
average yield is going to be close to our record, if not a new
record, and earlier in the year we thought it was going to only
be an average crop because of the dry weather,” said Jim
Beuerlein, an Ohio State University Extension agronomist.
Most of Ohio was plagued this growing season with either
abnormally dry conditions or moderate drought conditions.
Southern Ohio is still currently experiencing a range of drought
conditions with counties along the Kentucky border in a severe
drought situation. Though some soybean fields have been impacted
by the drought, most actually benefited from the weather.
Beuerlein said the key was timing.
“With the dry weather in June and July came some blessings, and
that was we had almost no root rot diseases, which always hurt
our yields,” said Beuerlein, who also holds an Ohio Agricultural
Research and Development Center appointment. “The dry weather
also did not affect the flowering or pod-fill processes. Fields
received adequate moisture when the plants needed it.”
The grain fill period went so well, in fact, that many growers
across the state are dealing with green stems.
“Normally the soybean plant digests the stems and leaves to
finish the pod-filling process, and the grain fill period went
so well that many varieties didn’t have to digest all those
stems, and so they stayed green,” said Beuerlein. “Green stems
may make it tough to harvest, but if growers wait and let the
plants dry down, then they are just as dry as those plants that
mature normally.”
Beuerlein said that growers throughout the west central and
northwest regions of the state are facing the biggest impact
from the dry weather, but even within those areas, variability
is making it difficult to determine the extent of the problem.
“You could have a drought disaster on one field and then go five
miles up the road and see a field that got adequate moisture,”
said Beuerlein. “Typical Ohio showers -- rain wets the front end
of the field, but not the back end.”
For more information on Ohio’s soybean crop, refer to the
Oregon State University's
Extension Agronomic Crops Team Web site at
http://agcrops.osu.edu.
The soybean is among Ohio’s top three field crop commodities,
generating over $1.3 billion to the agricultural industry,
according to the Ohio Department of Agriculture. Soybeans are
grown in Ohio for a wide variety of uses -- from grain to
food-grade to renewable energy production. |
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