Just a month after Midwest flooding threatened corn production and sent prices surging, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is reporting this year’s corn crop is on pace to be the second largest in U.S. history.

That’s little comfort to Central Texas farmers.

With most of the corn now piled into local silos, farmers and agriculture professionals can now look back on a year in which springtime’s high hopes slowly wilted in the sun.

“Horrible,” said Wayne Tyroch, describing what he’s seen this summer as a contractor who will harvest about 2,200 acres of corn for area farmers. “I’m over here in Troy now and we might have to plow the whole crop under.”

Tyroch said he’s seen yields as low as 15 bushels per acre. In a good year, local corn farmers could reap between 100 and 120 bushels per acre. Instead, they harvested on average about half that.

Dirk Aaron, agricultural extension agent for Bell County, said yields ranged from 40 to 70 bushels per acre. That’s not a good year, when compared to 2007 when farmers harvested from 70 to sometimes more than 100 bushels per acre, Aaron said.

Back in early spring, Aaron said things got off to a good start. But, “Lo and behold, at the most critical time, we’re not getting any rain.”

Across Central Texas, a potentially devastating fungus called aflatoxin, which can reduce what local grain buyers pay for corn, sometimes exacerbated dry conditions.

And that’s what happened in Troy. Tyroch said some corn scored so high on an aflatoxin test, it may be worthless. The result of a second test is pending.

Over in Milam County, agriculture extension agent Jon Gersbach said the corn crop was a “mixed bag,” with yield about 60 bushels per acre.

“The key seems to have been, planted early, on land that held moisture well,” Gersbach said. “Aflatoxin did not appear to be a large issue this year for our producers.”

Feral hogs tearing up cornfields and a problem with pollination also hurt yield, Gersbach said.

An economist for the Texas AgriLife Extension Service said last month’s extremely dry weather was a corn killer.

“We just ran out of water. Some ears never fully developed, and others were unable to fill properly, resulting in very disappointing yields,” Dr. Mark Welch wrote in a report Wednesday.

Comparing the national scene to Central Texas must be excruciating for local farmers. Midwest farmers (many replanted after the summer flood) have not harvested their farms, but are expecting up to 155 bushels per acre. That’s three times the local yield.