Area farmers expecting lower yields due to poor weather

A wet spring made it difficult for farmers to plant their crops, and now drought conditions are harming what crops have grown.

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This morning, News Center 7’s Gabrielle Enright discussed how Miami Valley farmers are dealing with the adverse weather.

Craig Corry, who is a farmer in Greene County, said that although many farmers got crops in the ground late, they are still optimistic about harvest time.

“The early planted crops will be normal to near-normal,” he said. “The dry weather lately has hurt the yield a little.”

Farmers would like to harvest their crops by the end of October, but the goal is Thanksgiving. However, he said that likely won’t happen because the weather will affect the harvest as well.

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In particular, high winds can affect corn harvests, Corry said, because as the ears of corn mature, the stalk of the plant dries, making it more susceptible to being blown over, especially if winds come after heavy rain.

This happened to some farmers last year — due to the wet weather some farmers couldn’t harvest as quickly as they wanted because their equipment kept getting stuck.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that the average corn yield for Ohio this year is expected to be about 160 bushels of corn per acre, down from 187 bushels last year and 177 bushels the year before. In total, USDA said Ohio farmers are expected to harvest 710,000 fewer acres of corn and 810,000 fewer acres of soybeans.

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