No. 164 May 1, 1939
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
Winter wheat prospects in Indiana changed very little in April and the indicated
production May 1, was 25,624,000 bushels. The expected yield is 16.5 bushels per
acre. Abandonment the past winter from natural causes was rather light being
mainly from water standing on fields and flooding streams. Diversion of wheat
acreage from grain, for conformity with adjustment allotments is a new factor
in the difference between seeded acreage and acreage remaining for harvest. The
harvested acreage is expected to be 4 per cent less than the seeded. The loss and
diversion amount to less than average loss.
The 157,000 acres of rye to be harvested for grain is expected to yield 12.0
bushels per acre and produce 1,884,000 bushels. Rye seedings last fall were large
and a greater part than usual of the seeded acreage will be harvested as grain.
The carry over of 592,000 tons of hay on farms is the largest since the estimates began in 1915. The mild winter and the large hay crop in 1938 are factors
in bringing the percentage of the last crop carried over to the highest figure
on record, though equaled by the percentage in 1932.
The condition of growing hay is seven points above average but is seven points
lower than last year. Similar figures are reported for pasture. Though moisture
was plentiful in April, temperatures were below normal, especially maximum
temperatures. Grasses were somewhat slower in growth than usual though prospects for later in the season seem good.
Farm work was retarded by wet ground in the middle of April but rapid progress
was made the last week. Employment of farm labor both of family and hired labor
were at the same levels as last year on May 1st.
Crop correspondents' flocks of laying hens and pullets averaged 95.2 birds where
last year there were 91.7 and the ten year figure is 101.4. Egg production per
100 layers was 60.9 on May 1st with 60.5 a year ago and a ten year average of 58.4.
Milk cows in reporters' herds produced May 1, 20.9 pounds of milk per cow
milked. Last year the production was 21.9 pounds, and the average is 21.0 pounds.
The percentage of cows in herds milked was 74.5 this year, 75.8 last year and
the average 74.9.
UNITED STATES
The condition of crops, pastures and ranges in the United States on May 1 was
quite uneven and prospects now appear somewhat below average, due chiefly to
dry weather in the Pacific Coast States, Idaho and Arizona, and in the Great Plains
area from North Dakota to Texas. In parts of the Southwest and California,
and in limited areas in other Western States, the lack of rainfall had definitely
reduced prospects for crops and pastures by May 1 and was beginning to cause
local increases in livestock marketings. In most other dry areas the lack of rainfall did not seem to have seriously affected either plantings or growth up to May
I. and with good rains a substantial degree of recovery could be expected, but the
Persistently dry weather, which has continued into early May, is now threatening
crop yields and causing considerable uneasiness because farmers remember the
severity of the droughts which have followed some dry springs in recent years.
East of the Great Plain States the rainfall has been somewhat unevenly distributed and there have been some destructive late frosts but, on the whole, crop
and pasture conditions and prospects in this area appear to be about average
for this season of the year.
Prospects for winter wheat declined about 1 per cent during April. Conditions
on May 1 indicated about an average yield per acre seeded and a production ot