It's official: 2020 crops yielded well

Each spring, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS) reports the yield estimates from the previous year for each county in the U.S. The delay is a result of waiting for late-harvested fields in some parts of the country and the time it takes to tabulate farmer survey information. Even though they are estimated numbers, government and industry use these values for historical records. The database will also be used by agencies to assist in determining government and insurance farm payments. Local farmers consider it a good soybean crop when the county average breaks 50 bushels per acre. Thus, 2020 was a great year for soybean in Hancock County, as the county yield average was 55.7 bushels. Hancock County farmers knew that they had a good soybean crop but were not sure how good it was across the county. However, they knew that timely rains in late July and August generally produce high-yielding beans. Year 2020 did not break the soybean 2018 yield record of 59.2 bushels. However, 2020 was the second-highest yield for the county and 6 bushels better than the 10-year average. The county yield was also 1.7 bushels better than the state average. Hancock county also had its second-best year in total production calculated as yield multiplied by harvested acres, only bested by the record year of 2018. Soybean production in the county was 7.698 million bushels, ranking it as the second-highest producing county in the state. The last time the county ranked that high was in 2012. Other surrounding counties did well in the state rankings for soybean production: Seneca (third), Putnam (fourth), Hardin (fifth) and Wyandot (13th). Wood county generally ranks high in production, but the returned survey number was too low for confidence in the data to be reported. Darke County ranked first in the state with 8.650 million bushels. Dry weather affected corn yields in the area but overall, it was a good year. Certainly it was much better than 2019, which may have been described as the year corn did not get planted. Hancock County yield average was 171.2 bushels per acre — similar to the state average, but 6.6 bushels better than the 10-year county average. It was the fourth year in a row that county yield averages have been 170 or larger. Corn production in 2020 was 15.322 million bushels. Hancock County is once again in the top 10 corn-producing counties in the state. In 2020, it ranked fifth in production of all the counties — its highest ranking since 2014 when it was also fifth. Of the surrounding counties, Seneca and Wood were in the top 10 — fourth and sixth, respectively. State corn production rankings for the other adjacent counties included Hardin (17th), Putnam (18th) and Wyandot (19th). Darke County was again first, with a production of 25.058 million bushels. The average wheat yield estimate for the county was considerable better than the yields in the wet year of 2019. Average yield was 78.4 bushels per acre — 7.4 bushels more than the state average and 7.6 bushels more than the 10-year county average. Wheat production was at 1.576 million bushels for the county. Hancock county has ranked in the top 10 wheat-producing counties in Ohio for over 20 years. For the second year, it ranked third among Ohio's counties. Wood County was the top-producing county. Historically, Putnam County is one of the top-producing counties. However, this year, too few farmers from Putnam County responded to wheat questionnaires to provide reliable data for county estimates. Rankings for adjacent counties include Seneca (fifth), Wyandot (19th) and Hardin (22nd). Hancock County planted 21,400 acres to wheat for the 2019-20 crop year, 3000 fewer acres than 2018-19. Wheat-planted acres continued to hover around 20,000 compared to the 40,000 acres planted 10 years ago. Wheat acres accounted for about 8.5% of the planted acres to grain crops in Hancock County. Soybean had the most acres at 55.4%, followed by corn at 36.1% — typical percentages over the past several years. Grain prices have been favorable for farmers this year since harvest. Farmers needed a break. They have not seen favorable grain prices for the past five years and have struggled to be profitable. For once, yields and prices were both good. NASS may modify these numbers after further analysis of U.S. data. For example, original soybean yields for Hancock in 2018 were estimated at 61.3 bushels but later adjusted to 59.2 bushels. Regardless of any adjustments, 2020 will be recorded as a good year for crops in Hancock County. Lentz is Extension educator for agriculture and natural resources for the Ohio State University Extension Service in Hancock County. Contact Lentz at 419-422-3851 or lentz.38@osu.edu for additional information.