by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

The extremely wet spring weather will keep Hamilton County corn and soybean crops far from setting record yields. But, crops are also far from a disaster this year. That’s the reaction I get from a few folks in the business.

Early in the season it appeared that very little corn would be planted. Some farmers planted soybeans instead because they can be planted later and still have time to mature after a wet spring. But quite a bit of corn was planted before and after the worst of the spring rains. And, in many cases, the corn looks good except for sections of fields that repeatedly flooded.

Farmers seem to think that if we experience some hot weather in September and a reasonably late frost, crops that were planted late will still have time to mature. Corn and beans are by far the county’s largest farm crops.

The Hamilton County Purdue Extension office declined to comment on anything they have heard about how local crops are doing. Apparently, Purdue has told their extension agents to not speculate on crop production. The office also claims to not have information on how many acres are still being planted in the county.

It is obvious that more and more land is being taken out of production for housing and business development. But, north of 196th Street farming is still the major industry, and a big part of the county’s overall economy.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture figures show a little over 100,000 acres in the county are devoted to farming, most of it in cropland. Hamilton County’s total land area amounts to 256,640 acres.