Sturgeon Bay-area dairy farmer Kevin Gilbert says he's seen, or is expecting, crop yields to be less than recent years, but a few timely rains this summer kept more dramatic decreases at bay.

"If you go a little further north it doesn't look good," he said. "We might be 50 to 75 percent less than what our normal yield would be, but some of the corn we took for silage was on some shallower soil."

Gilbert points out they have had a lot of good years for crops in the last four or five years that left them with a some carryover feed from last year and doesn't anticipate that will be an issue this year with reduced yields.

"We cut second-crop hay, but there really wasn't a whole lot. And third crop, we didn't even do that this year," he said. "If people want to buy hay, that might be a little tough."

Corn and soybean harvest is ongoing around the state as producers bring in a crop that in some areas is feeling the impact of a dry summer.

Statewide, corn harvested for grain was rated at 21 percent complete, above both last year's 9 percent and the five-year average of 11 percent complete, according to the weekly Crop Progress and Condition report released Tuesday.

Corn silage harvest was wrapping up and rated at 96 percent complete, ahead of both last year (92 percent) and the five-year average (82 percent complete).

Soybean harvest increased to 25 percent complete, ahead of last year but below the five-year average of 27 percent complete, according to the report. Yields and moisture levels appear to be average to good.

Nationwide, corn production could be about 13.11 billion bushels of corn, down about 200 million bushels for government estimates, according to Lanworth Inc.'s October estimate.

Lanworth is an information technology company specializing in the application of aerial and satellite remote sensing to natural resource management.

> Differences between the Lanworth and USDA estimates are concentrated in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Tennessee and Ohio, according to a Monday release from the firm.

Lanworth said they expect 2007 soybean production to be 2.58 billion bushels, 1.4 percent lower than the 2.62 billion bushels reported by the USDA in its September Crop Production Report and 19 percent lower than the 3.19 billion bushels produced in 2006.

The monthly U.S. Department of Agriculture Crop Production report is expected to be released Friday.

Copyright (c) 2007. Green Bay Press Gazette.