No. 155 August 1, 1938
INDIANA CROPS AND LIVESTOCK
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS
CO-OPERATING WITH
PURDUE UNIVERSITY
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS
WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA
INDIANA
Indiana corn prospects improved in July and the indicated yield per acre on August 1
is 39.5 bushels per acre instead of 35.0 bushels as on July 1. Production expected is
159,856,000 bushels, 76 percent of last year and 12 percent more than the 1927-1936
average. Abundant moisture, warm days and nights, but without extreme temperatures
combined to make very favorable growing weather for all crops.
Winter wheat yield is reported at 16 bushels per acre, one bushel less than expected a
month ago. Production is estimated as 31,744,000 bushels, 8 percent less than 1937 and
15 percent more than the 1927-1936 average. The lowered yields are in the south and
southwest parts of the state.
Oats are one bushel per acre less promising now than last month with 29 bushels yield
indicated. Production expected of 40,861,000 bushels is 89 percent of 1937 and 83 of
average. Oats are very spotty with good and poor fields interspersed throughout the
state.
Rye production is estimated at 1,208,000 bushels, 60 percent of 1937, and 93 percent
of average. The yield of 11.5 bushels is one bushel less than expected.
No change is indicated for the production of barley at 528,000 bushels of 22 per acre.
Potatoes on high ground are very good but some damage is apparent in low fields.
The average yield indicated is unchanged at 95 bushels per acre. Production is 4,845,000
bushels or 92 percent of average.
Tobacco is about the same as last month, with some slight improvement in the dark
crop.
Grapes are the only fruit to show improvement in July. Indicated production is 300
tons greater, and the 2,300 tons expected is only 60 percent of an average crop. The
tree fruits are all rather short crops ranging from 39 percent of last year for apples, to
59 percent for pears, with peaches at 51 percent of last year.
Hay crops continue at the same high prospect as in July with the expected production
of 2,967,000 tons 28 percent larger than 1937 and 44 percent larger than the average of
1927-1936. The increase over last year is mainly clover and timothy hay due to a larger
screage. The increase over average is due to larger amounts of alfalfa and soybean hay.
Pasture condition at 93 is the highest for August 1, since 1915.
On August 1, on farms of Crop Reporters', there were 76.2 hens and pullets of laying
age per farm.   Production at 44 eggs per hundred birds is high for the season.
Milk production per cow milked on Reporters' farms, August 1, is 21.5 pounds, the
highest for the date since records began in 1925, compared with 19.8 pounds last year.
The percentage of cows in herd milked is 79.2 while last year was 78.4.
UNITED STATES
There was a general and rather substantial improvement in crop prospects in most
parts of the United States during July, and indications on the first of August were that
a number of the important field crops would give yields per acre above the generally
excellent yields secured last year and that practically all major field crops would give
yields per acre equal to or above the average of those secured during the previous 10
years. Even allowing for the somewhat less promising prospects for the principal fruits,
the August 1 composite of the prospective yields per acre of all crops is 9.7 percent
above the 1923-32 average. This would be about 6 percent below the exceptionally high
cr°P yields secured last year but substantially above the yields in any other season
since 1920.
. A light loss of acreage is expected to offset the decrease in plantings this year, indicating that about the usual total acreage of crops will be harvested. If the good yields per
acre now expected are finally secured, there will be bumper crops of rice, sugarcane,
a"d sugar beets, unusually large to near-record crops of wheat, hay, beans, and soybeans,
and above-average crops of feed grains, rye, tobacco, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. This
leaves cotton, estimated at 9 percent below the 1927-36 average, flaxseed and buckwheat
as the only field crops which now show prospects far below-average production.
This generally favorable showing is shared more evenly than usual between the various
producing areas.
MINER M. JUSTIN, ROBERT E. STRASZHEIM,
Agricultural Statistician. Assoc. Agricultural Statistician.