1988 corn and bean yields

[Blacksandfarmer]

I don't remember much of 1988, I was only about 6 years old at the time. My grandfather talks about the drought that year often, his corn only yielded around 30 Bushel and beans were less than 10. What were yields like on your farms that year? Do you think modern seed technology would make a difference in a similar drought year?

[idalivered]

I would have been 29, then. Most of what my father and I farmed at the time caught some timely thundershowers and, if i remember correctly, we fell in about that 150-165 range. The farm where I live missed the showers and was more like 125. At that time here in ncia everyone planted a pioneer corn numbered 3475. Late that summer it got hot and dry and the 3475 just turned white. there were stark contrasts between hybrids and a yield monitor would have been very interesting. The gmo corn probably would have fared better with root and vascular systems that weren't damamged by rootworms or cornborers. The heat and dryness  would have still taken it's toll, but our yield thresholds have changed.  Now, I'm starting to sound like and old fart..."why, back in '88 it was so dry...."

[Ed_Winkle]

A little bit but not much.  That was a bad one.

We started planting March 31 so we had a decent year.  It started raining here the week of the Warren County Fair in mid July but nothing inbetween.  I know guys that never got the crop to sprout and the yields around Daytong Ohio were like yours grandpa's.  I remember farmers dancing in the rain at that fair.

Early notill planting with pristine seed treated with the best treatments and inoculants are what works for me.

Ed Winkle

[Sundowner]

I remember my yields were around 145 here and normally would have expected about 155 to 160.

WIth the drought I didn't do any more tillage and I held off on any cultivating as I didn't want to dry out the

ground anymore. Alot of leaves turning white and rolling during the day but was happy with that yield as

I know other places had that 40 + or - kind of crops. Our soils had that ability to hold on to any moisture

that we did get.

Had soybeans in flat storage (on the floor of the machine shed) from the year before I remember selling some out 

of that pile for $7.50 to pay off the CCC and then sold the rest later in the summer for around $8.13 or 8.30.

Was a good year....was lucky.

NCIA

[JAS#17]

I was only 12 but I think Dad's corn yields were around 30 BPA.  Some yields in the area were worse than that.....I still remember guys doing math trying to decide if some fields were worth harvesting.  I don't think dad had crop insurance....still not sure how he or alot of others survived that. 

[hardnox604008]

Corn made 98, beans made 33.

Huge mistake that I missed spraying spider mites on some beans probably cost me several BPA.

We had corn that only got 5 feet tall but popped off a little ear anyway- pretty amazing.

My guess is that yields on new genetics would suffer about proportionately. If we had a yield goal of 150 back then and made 2/3rds and if goal is 200 I'd hazard a guess of around 125-30?

Beans- probably not a big difference other than the better weed control options (weed control was pretty poor that year with no rain to activate herbs.

[jrsiajdranch]

Black I remeber it very well I was 16.  My great Grandpa was still alive and farmed the home place near Lee Lake.  He had 12 bushel corn.  Wheat that year was in the 20 bu. range.  THe thing I remembered from central Michigan was that I chopped second cutting hay that year and all I could follow was the wheel tracks from the Haybine.  THey realeased CRP ground in August for haying and I cut a field of weeds for feed.  I itched for three days after running that 1070 case with a 1219 JD haybine.   That fall it started raining and we couldn't get our crops out. We had a 4520 with a 3960 JD chopper we went and got a 1 row corn head to see if we could pull that thru the field. NO GO.  We waited till the first week of December to chop the corn when the ground was froze.  To ensure we were going to have enough feed we Mixed apple pulp into the harvestores to lenghten out the feed supply it was 2 loads of corn silage and then a couple tons of beet pulp. Slow doesn't even begin to describe the process.  That winter we Drove all over hells half acre buying hay. We didn't care about quality just fiber.  I remember two neighbors coming over while we were milking ,they also milked cows.  Both grown men in their late 40's early 50's.  They leaned against the block wall in that stall barn and literaly cried like babies as they had no feed and no money to buy feed with.  I hope we never see an 88 drought again.

[highyields]

I was 11 in 88, I remember riding in the combine with my dad in September and combining dry corn, that was a rarity around here. 

We had to combine it since the cows needed something to eat. 

2002 and 2003 I think you guys back east missed those, 2002 was really bad, we had 25 bushel corn avearge and most of that came off of one naturally sub irrigated field.  I combined a lot of 10 bushel corn and less that year.  There was a huge differnece in Hybrids that year, both withn a company and different companies, 2002 was my first year farming, what a b&^%h.  My grandpa was here yet and the farm where he lived since he owned that farm since 55 he always raised enough corn to fill one side of the corn crib, or the same bushels in the bin, that year we didn't get enough off that farm to do that.  The corn that year some of it got white and laid down, it was just done. that was before 4th of July.  On the 4th we got a little shower and then the sun came out and it "cooked" the corn that evening, When i went to town that night it smelled like sweet corn cooking.  

We got a big rain in august and our beans made 35 bushel, we weren't no tilling 100% yet that year and the no till beans made 45.

I'm in southeast nebraska and the big droughts I can remember where 88, 95,02, 03,  83, was dry too i guess and a few in the late 70's, course 74 I hear stories about.  

2002, and 2003 where helpful though, the seed corn companies and farmers alike weaned out the poor hybrids, in 2006 we had another dry spell and our corn made 100 bushel.  It was so dry here though up until 2008 when it got hot in the summer the corn on top of the terraces would burn up the two maybe 4 rows right on top of the conventional terraces.  

Now its so wet here I had to be careful not getting stuck spraying corn.   Its always nice tot rasie a crop both grain and hay, but yet its nice to be able to do it with dodging showers too.  Farmers are never satisfied.  

[Blacksandfarmer]

Highyields the older farmers talk a lot about 88. The most I can remember from that year was a man could nearly walk across a nearby normally deep lake, and my dad and I were only able to fish that lake in the center- the sides of the lake were dried up. 2007 was my first year farming; I started out very small on a 35 acre piece of land I leased off my parents. It was a La Nina year, we had a freak first week of June frost that dinged up my soybeans a little. A couple weeks later, we received a rare hailstorm that knocked out the 40 acre field of corn my neighbors had next to me and a quarter of my beans. Then July rolled around and it stopped raining. I can remember receiving 6 tenths of an inch of rain in 7 weeks! What the drought didn't take in yield the spider mites did. My yield was around 30 bu maybe a little less, it was hard to get an accurate count because some of the ground couldn't get planted with the abnormally wet spring we had that year. 2007 is ranked the #2 worst drought in history for this area. I now farm a little more acreage but one thing is for sure- I will never be a naive farmer after that!

[Blacksandfarmer]

Naive about the weather that is LOL!