Hearing that corn in White County yielded 275 bushels per acre wouldn't be that surprising. The county is known for having some of the darkest, deepest, most productive soils in Indiana. However, hearing about plot results that include hybrids making 275 bushels per acre from Sunman is another thing altogether.
Nothing against anyone living near Sunman, but most of the land around there is tight, often wet if not drained and many times hard to drain. The average yield is typically far less than on the more productive soils of northwest Indiana.
Yet seed reps who run plots there, and also in eastern Decatur County, where soils aren't as productive unless tiled and drained, indicate that there have been yields of 275 bushels per acre. Soybean yields in the same area have topped 70 bushels per acre.
What makes it harder to believe is that the area was very wet last spring, and planting was delayed. The saving grace, however, farmers there say, is that the area received rain in August. The farther south and east you go from Greensburg, typically the more rain that fell. The rain came at the right time for corn that was filling ears and for soybeans that were at the height of their reproductive stage, filling pods with soybeans. Many areas in central Indiana and also north-central and even parts of northwest Indiana did not receive those timely rains in August that could have sent yields soaring there as well.
The high yield reports from Southeast Indiana probably add credence to the more recent USDA estimates on the Indiana corn crop. They also indicate what might happen to soybean yields if the entire state ever gets a year with ample moisture during the critical period for soybeans. Some areas have had four years in a row of dry weather when soybeans were at the most critical stage.