The coolest July in at least 112 years has decreased the odds of a strong harvest of corn and soybeans this year.

Those crops generally look healthy now, experts agree, but the plants are significantly behind schedule.

The greatest risk is that early frosts or freezes will cut yields or reduce the quality of what is harvested.

A poor harvest, in turn, would tend to raise prices for consumer products, ranging from soft drinks to ethanol.

Official weather records, kept in Fort Wayne since 1897, confirm that it’s as cool as you think this month. Sara Weisser, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office near Syracuse, said that through Tuesday, the average temperature in July has been 69 degrees — 4.4 degrees lower than normal.

“It’s a mixed bag,” said Susan Lawrence, regional director of Farm Bureau of Indiana, referring to the summer chill. While the low temperatures deprived corn of the heat it needs to mature, she said, avoiding heat stress could help pollination, which is necessary to form each kernel of corn on an ear.

But the slow development of the crop increases the likelihood that farmers won’t have time to harvest before sharply colder weather damages the plants.

“If we get an early frost, it could cut yields by 50 percent,” said Lawrence, who farms with her family near Avilla.

William Horan, the agriculture and natural resources educator with the Purdue Extension Service in Wells County, sounds a bit more optimistic.

“I don’t think it has hurt anything,” he said of the cool temperatures, adding that the better conditions for pollination will help.

Statewide, corn and soybeans are far behind their average development over the last five years. The Indiana crop report, issued weekly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Monday that only 53 percent of corn plants had developed silks so far, compared with an average of 84 percent at this time in the last five summers.

The cool month hasn’t impeded every aspect of farming. The crop report noted that alfalfa cuttings and wheat harvests are tracking with average schedules in recent years.

Lawrence, who raises cattle, notes that cooler weather reduces stress on cows, pigs and other farm animals. And even as the ground has dried and cracked in dry spells this summer, cool temperatures have kept plants from withering. That’s more important than Fort Wayne residents might think.

Although weather records from Fort Wayne show that its July rainfall total is higher than normal, Weisser said Fort Wayne is the only location in the region that shows above-normal precipitation.

David Kohli, a commodities broker with Allendale Inc. in Fort Wayne, says the combination of the El Nino weather effect and minimal solar activity combine to make continued cooler weather likely and increase the odds of an early freeze. But Kohli isn’t worried about the future of corn in this corn-loving corner of the state, even if this turns out to be a bad year.

“Farmers like growing corn,” Kohli said. “There’s a lot of it in their bins after a harvest. It looks good. It feels good. That’s a big, big, big factor.”

Author: By Bob Caylor, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.