LCCGA holds yield tour

PONTIAC – If the results of a recent yield tour are any indication, corn yields are down only slightly from last year for Livingston County.

The Livingston County Corn Growers Association came up with a county average of 191.8 bushels per acre. They use a divisor of 90 for all of the yield checks and a yield estimate was obtained from every township this year. A few townships had more than one test so those were averaged together to get one representative number for that area.

“As with most years, population makes all the difference,” LCCGA member Bob Lawless said in an e-mail. “The very early planted corn looked great. The very late planted also looked very good other than it will be wet at normal harvest dates.”

Those who planted corn just ahead of the cold wet period in the spring lost stands, which hurt the yield estimates, according to Lawless. Also, the spread from high to low was a little tighter this year.

“Maybe it is just because they are rather noticeable but it seems like we drove by a lot of really tough looking fields this year which would make me think that we might be a bit optimistic on our yield,” added Lawless.

In 2016, the LCCGA estimated 199.6 bushels per acre for Livingston County and the actual county average was about 200.