No. 272 May 1, 1948
INDIANA CROPS AND LIVESTOCK
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS
COOPERATING WITH
PURDUE UNIVERSITY
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS
WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA
INDIANA
May 1 prospects indicated a 1948 wheat crop in Indiana of 39,600,000 bushels. This
holds up to the forecast of last December and is ten per cent above last year, and 47 per
cent greater than the 1937-46 average. The seeded acreage was 13 per cent more than
iast year and 16 per cent above average. Condition over the state is rather uniformly
high, and abandonment of about two per cent is mostly due to stream overflow.
The 70,000 acres of rye expected to be harvested for grain is a smaller percentage of
the seeded acreage than last year, but very near the average. The expected yield of 14.0
bushels per acre is above average. The production forecast is 980,000 bushels or 17 per
cent above last year, when the acreage was smaller. Both acreage and production are
far below the 1937-46 average.
Stocks of hay on Indiana farms May 1 are estimated as 320,000 tons. This is nearly
one-fourth less than last year or the ten year average. The reduction is due to lower
acreage and smaller production in 1947 since disappearance of hay in the feeding season
was 298,000 tons less than the previous year.
Pasture condition at 91 per cent of normal is nine points above average, though slightly
below the figures for 1942 and 1945.
The average number of laying hens in April 1948 was 12,740,000 about one per cent
below last year. Egg production per 100 hens was 1,947 approaching the 1946 figure.
Total eggs produced of 248 million was slightly above last year. Production for the first
four months of the year amounted to 855 million eggs where last year 827 million were
produced.
Milk production in April was 299 million pounds or five million more than last year,
and 22 million above the 1937-46 average. Production per cow was second only to the
high figure of 1946, which offset the reduced number of milk cows. The percentage of
milk cows in production was practically average.
UNITED STATES
Satisfactory progress of spring work was possible during most of April in practically
all of the country east of the Rockies. The weather conditions that fostered field activity,
however, were somewhat adverse for winter wheat in parts of the southern Great Plains.
Elsewhere the condition of fall-sown crops is mostly good to excellent, though grasses,
meadows and pastures have developed a little slowly in the North. Hay stocks remain
fairly large for the country as a whole, in spite of heavy late-feeding requirements, which
nearly exhausted supplies in some sections.
Winter wheat suffered some deterioration and acreage loss in the Great Plains, but
was in good to excellent condition in most other important areas. Production is now
forecast at 845 million bushels, only 15 million less than on April 1. Although no official
estimate of spring wheat production will be available until next month, average yields on
the prospective acreage would bring the total wheat crop up to 1,117 million bushels.
Rye production of 26 million bushels is expected, with an above average yield on a
slightly larger acreage for harvest than last season. A hay crop nearly as large as in
either of the past 2 years is foreseen from current reported conditions, and with the
carryover promises an ample supply for the smaller number of hay-consuming animals
on farms. Pasture condition is rather uniformly good. Spring truck crops will furnish
supplies of vegetables only slightly below last year and well above average. Early potatoes
may reach markets later than usual, but production is expected to be relatively large in
the South, while California has an excellent crop.
, Temperatures were above average throughout most of April, the chief exception being
in the Pacific Northwest. Monthly averages ranged from about normal in New England
to 6 degrees above normal in the southern Great Plains and scattered interior sections, but
average temperatures were about normal in northern Mountain States to 3 degrees below
normal in parts of Washington and northern California. Rainfall continued fairly heavy
during the first third of April, but in following weeks was relatively light, except in
New York, Pennsylvania, and the upper Ohio Valley, in Florida, and in some west North