Published: October 02, 2009 08:46 pm      

Crop moisture too high for harvest

Farmers may need to pay for drying

DANVILLE — Late planting, a cooler-than-normal summer and year-long wet weather has pushed corn and soybean harvest plans two or three weeks behind schedule.

Although excess moisture could potentially hold things up into this next week, early yield projections in the area are still calling for average to above-average crops.

Sidell farmer Bill Markel doesn’t anticipate his bottom line hurting at this point, but he’s anxious to see some sunny days as the fall weather continues.

“We’re a long way from having the crop in the bin,” he said. “There’s a lot of disease coming in and one good windstorm could put everything down on the ground.”

Corn moisture levels, which are supposed to be below a certain level before corn is stored, are high for this time of year. Markel sampled some corn mid-week that read 30 to 45 percent.

“You want it below 20 percent,” he said, adding that he’d wait until it’s down to 25 percent before he attempts combining.

“I’m getting my driers set up to run. I don’t even remember the last time I ran them,” he said.

Farmers who don’t dry their corn could be facing prices as high as $50 per acre for drying charges, Markel said

“No one budgets for $50 an acre for a drying expense,” he said.

The last eight or 10 years, Markel began harvest around the middle of September. This year it could be mid-October.

Tom Fricke, a spokesman for the Vermilion County Farm Bureau, said a few farmers got started this week.

In the northern part of the county, some were beginning to bring in beans. The southern part of the county saw a few beginning with corn.

James Wienke, who farms near Homer, had finished about 65 acres of corn by Wednesday.

“We’re hoping to start on beans by the first part of next week,” he said.

Just as it has for Markel, weather this year and last year has changed his normal harvest plans.

“We would like to do beans first. It’s always been a mix here in the last few years. Last year was bad, but this year would top it,” he said.

Although the crop will come in later, yield estimations are promising at this point.

“The early numbers we’ve hard from two or three people have sounded pretty good so far, especially on the corn,” Fricke said.

“One field of beans this morning was 61 bushels (per acre). That’s very decent,” he said.

Corn yield projections at this point are just more than 200 bushels per acre.

“That would be really good,” he said, if those numbers became the county’s overall averages.

He echoed Markel’s concerns about moisture levels. Moisture levels for corn and beans should be about 15.5 percent for corn and 13 percent for beans in order to not get docked at the elevator, Fricke said. If farmers are unable to harvest their crop when the grain is drier, they’ll have to pay to have it dried at the elevator so it doesn’t rot

But drying costs add to the price of this year’s crop, he said.

Some farmers have reported mold in the corn, as well as kernels — still on the stalks — that are starting to sprout new corn plants.

Meanwhile, prices are only approaching what they were a couple years ago.

“The big run-ups we had with commodity prices through 2008 aren’t there now,” Fricke said.

The Wednesday price for new corn finished at $3.44 on the Chicago Board of Trade; Sept. 30, 2008 prices were $5.41 and the same contract Sept. 30, 2007, was $4.25.

Soybeans Wednesday ended at $9.37; they were $10.74 Sept. 30, 2008, and $9.23 Sept. 30, 2007.

The Illinois Farm Bureau released a report Monday that said 2 percent of corn was harvested and soybeans were at 1 percent harvested. A year ago, those numbers were at 4 percent and 5 percent, respectively. The five year average for corn and soybean harvests at that point is 28 percent and 21 percent complete, respectively.

Harvest is even later than last year, but warmer weather in summer and fall helped late planting, Fricke said.

Channel — formerly Midwest Seed Genetics — agronomist Mike Toohill said the challenges this year are prevalent all over the state, but Vermilion County is one of the best areas statewide.

“I think generally right around the Danville area, there’s a good crop on both corn and soybeans,” he said. “It’s one of the better areas in the state.

His estimates for average yields this year for the county are 170 to 220 bushels per acre for corn and 50 to 60 bushels per acre for soybeans.

“That’s a pretty good crop,” he said.

Other areas of the state are faring much worse. An area from Springfield to Lincoln is showing molds and rot. The northern part of the state is rife with white molds, he said. Many farmers in those areas will be docked at the elevators.