The Manager of the Marion-Clinton County Farm Bureau says a survey of crop conditions in Clinton County this week showed them in surprisingly good condition with the extreme dry weather.
Brad Conant summarizes what was found.
“Taking a crop that had a late start and water pressures early on, having really good potential after we were able to get in the field and get things growing,” Conant said. “There will be a corn crop, but we’re taking bushels with the lack of rain here later in the season. Probably the bigger story will be the soybean crop this year as especially late-planted beans are really going to struggle to produce. We’re going to not really have the seed size and not have the moisture for soybeans to develop here at the last leg of their development.”
Even with the moisture issue, the Clinton County survey projected a 190-bushel average yield for corn, which would be on the high level. Five teams spread out through Clinton County, collecting ten samples apiece to project the yields.
There is no crop survey done for Marion County, but Conant is seeing similar situations with some exceptions for pockets that have received considerable rain since the dry weather moved in the second half of the summer.
Conant projects harvest is still about two weeks away.
August was the driest month on record in Centralia, with just two one hundredths of an inch of rain, breaking the record three one-hundredths of an inch in the middle of the July 2012 drought. The Salem Water Plant recorded slightly more rain at 36 hundredths of an inch.
