“It’s going to be a mixed bag,” Gersbach said. “It’s definitely not one to brag about. There will be some fields that will do OK, but there are some fields that will do poorly, and there will be some fields that are going to get by.”
Milam County row crop producers and guests toured parched corn plots during the recent crops tour viewing cracked blackland soil where corn, cotton, sorghum and sunflowers are struggling. Some fields are thriving, while others are wilted, yellow and brittle.
Overall, corn planted early into good moisture “is holding out better and has produced better than anything that was planted later,” Gersbach said.
“Some of the later-planted corn, if it was planted on drier land and soil types that get real hot, real fast, those are going to be the fields that do not do as well,” Gersbach said.
“Some of the shorter maturing varieties look like they are going to a lot better than the longer maturing varieties,” he said.
Bell County corn crops also are heat, and drought stressed. County Agent Dirk Aaron could not be reached for comment.
Texas AgriLife Extension Service specialist, and farm manager, reported that “early planted corn is going to be average, or below average. Later-planted corn is near disaster situation if we don’t get rain.”
While the sun was parching corn stalks, a hot dry wind also affected pollination and has impacted the yield, Gersbach said.
Winds scattered the pollen making it difficult to shake down into the tassels, Gersbach said.
“So in a lot of the fields, some of the drier fields have such a narrow window to get those ears pollinated, you can look at the ears and they are kind of skimpy, not as full as they could be,”Gersbach said.
While the Central Texas corn crop yield “is going to be mediocre at best we are definitely better” than in other parts of the state, such as South Texas where fields are “dry, dry, dry,” and the corn belt where flooded cropland will yield no corn this year, Gersbach said.
“I wish, if anything can come out a bad situation, it would be our producers making more money on an already highly risky situation and expensive endeavor,” Gersbach said. “But, input costs are up tremendously over the previously year, and they are paying close to double for fuel this year over last year.”
