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Crop Forecast: Disaster For Some Corn Farmers, Great Prospects For Others

Joshua Duffy
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/joshduffyphoto/7283981926

Indiana’s farmers are expected to produce significantly less corn this year while soybeans didn’t take as bad a hit after flooding that devastated parts of the state. 

Indiana corn crops are expected to decline by about 20-percent from last year, while soybeans are only down 9-percent.  That follows the second-wettest June and July in the state’s recorded history. 

Yet Purdue corn specialist Bob Nielsen says the expected output is a mixed bag across the state.

“There are some fields around the state that are the best corn they’ve ever had; it is that good.  But there are many other areas of the state where the fields are total disaster – literally, total disaster, nothing – and then everything in between,” Nielsen says.

Purdue ag economist Chris Hurt says the decline likely won’t change prices very much at the supermarket.

“Now the reason for that is while we had an impact to lower yields here, in other parts of the corn belt – particularly the western corn belt: Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska – they have excellent crops and even record yields,” Hurt says.

Hurt says beef prices have spiked to record highs but expects that to come down over the next few months.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.
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