Corn and soybean yields have fluctuated greatly in the Steinbach area this year. That is from Marc Hutlet with Marc Hutlet Seeds at Ste. Anne.

According to Hutlet, the corn harvest is nearing 50 per cent complete. He notes the corn has dried down a lot over the last couple of weeks due to frost and all of the wind.

"A day like (Tuesday) again, there will be lots of acres coming off," he suggests.

Hutlet says there has been an incredible amount of variability in yields within the Steinbach region. He notes one producer can be taking off 100 bushels per acre, while the next producer twenty miles down the road can be taking off 180 bushels per acre.

"Rainfall was the big culprit," he says. "We had that awful dry stretch end of July, beginning of August where we went probably ten to fourteen days where we needed rain badly. And so the people that got it, have the bushels and the people that didn't, lower yields."

Hutlet says the years of being satisfied with 100 bushels per acre, are gone. These days, producers are aiming for 140 to 160.

Meanwhile, Hutlet says the harvest of soybeans is now complete in the Steinbach area. Similar to corn, the soybean yields have been all over the map, between 30 and 50 bushels per acre. This again had to do with a lack of precipitation. He notes most producers are aiming for 40 bushels per acre.

"Some guys that got rain had a phenomenal crop," he says.

All in all, Hutlet says harvest is further along today than it was a year ago.