Crop quality deteriorating with sprouting crops and dusty fields

Matt Spillman

We’re moving right along with both corn and soybeans. We’re roughly 75% done with the soybeans and over 50% with the corn. The weather’s been pretty nice to be able to get something done. We’re ahead of schedule. It’d be great to be done by Halloween this year. That’s probably a first if we make that happen, but the forecast looks pretty good for that situation. It doesn’t look like much rain in the next 10 days. It looks like nice, sunny days of cooler weather.

Corn yields have been pretty steady. They started out in that 200 range. We’ve had up to 220s on average and then we’ve had a few fields down in that upper 170s range. So, corn has been pretty good and pretty steady. The moisture is still pretty dry. The later planted stuff and the heavier ground still has some moisture in the corn and it will get into the low 20s. Shelling 19%, 20% corn is better than 15% corn. As it gets below that, we’re seeing some header loss. That corn shatters. We’re keeping the deck plates tight and a little higher moisture is not unwelcome.

The stalks are weaker in places. Some of the tops are blown out. We lucked out with the hurricane. We ended up with around 2 inches of rain. It didn’t take too long to get back in the fields.

The soybeans are so dry some of the pods are split open. We probably lost at least a bushel off the cutter bar and they’re growing in the field now with that rain we got. Beans have been a little more disappointing than the corn. They look like they’d be 60-plus bushel beans but you get out in them and they’re 50. Yields have ranged from 50 to the mid 60s and our average is somewhere in the mid- to upper 50s.

It’s just a dirty harvest for corn and soybeans both. The dust is flying off the combine and it makes it tough to see. We’ve got that black fungus out there, which really came in after the rain.

John Settlemyre

We’ve gotten 4 days of harvest in since the hurricane. The ground’s a little bit soft. The moisture in the grain has gone from 8.5% back up to about 14%, and the quality has really deteriorated. The moisture really soaked into the corn and beans. We’re starting to see some sprouts, discoloration and damage, so grain quality really changed.

We had anywhere from 3 to 4 inches of rain around this area over that 4-day window. On soybeans, the splits went from 1.5% to 10%, and that’s with the combine at the same setting. We’ve tried to slow down the rotors. The grain is just that much more fragile from the super dry to the super wet and now drying back down again. That shrink and swell has really changed the integrity of the seeds.

The beans shattered at the head and then there’s always a little bit left in the windrows and every one of them seems to be growing this year with the warm temperatures and moisture. Usually, it’s cool when we’re harvesting and there’s not enough heat to germinate the seeds, but we’re two weeks earlier than normal for harvest so we’re still in the heat of the summer.

In Clinton County I’ve heard 40 bushel yields all the way up to 75- or 80-bushel beans in the dark black soil that’s got great moisture holding capacity. We have a lot of corn that’s blown down now too from the 60-, 65-mile-an-hour winds on Saturday. We see combines going 1 to 2 miles an hour and still leaving a bunch on the ground. The harvest is going to be a lot more time consuming and a lot more frustrating this year.

There is a black fungus that is present to break down the stalks and the stems. The rain and the heat were enough to activate that stuff, so you see a lot of that black mold on the bean stems and a lot of corn plants. That’s starting to make stalks even weaker than they were.

 I think we’ll be done with harvest in about 10 more days. There’s no rain in our 10-day forecast and we’re moving right along. I think we’ll get done before the first of November.

Josh Kiser

Last Wednesday a lot of people started running some beans and we started Friday afternoon. We didn’t really get very much rain. I think we got maybe a half an inch. We didn’t seem to get too much, but it definitely was able to get some moisture back up a little bit in the crops.

Our plants weren’t even dried down yet before the rain, so we still had some moisture there. Beans have been running in about the high 50-bushel range. We have one more field that’s ready and then we’ve got some waiting to do for some more fields to be ready. There have been some corn fields taken off around us too, but I’m not sure what they’re running.

So far, we’re pleased with yields for as tough as this year has been. Yields always could be better, but our yields aren’t too bad this year. We took a small field off yesterday and I could see a little bit of a black tinge to the plants. It’s really dusty. The combine has been running a little warm and we’ve had to clean the radiator several times.

I would say we’re probably on pace with our normal harvest schedule, maybe a little bit ahead. We’re especially ahead of last year. It seemed like it took forever to dry it out last year.

We wrapped up hay for the year. It wasn’t the best year for hay, but it was better than last year so we’re happy about that.

Jeff Rea

Harvest started back up late last week. We did have a little bit of rain from the hurricane. We got about an inch to 2 inches, so that slowed things down. We didn’t get into beans yet, but we might today.  So far, the corn lived up to its potential of being a little disappointing. The yields are not wonderful, but considering how dry it was this year I’m pleased with how they held up. Yields have been in the mid one-hundreds. I’m not completely disappointed with that. When you go in with low expectations, you’re pleasantly surprised.

With the rain I have noticed that like lawns are greening up, so I think it did help with some of the risk for fires in the fields. The rain obviously wasn’t going to help any crop yields, but I think it did diminish that risk  a little bit. It looks like it’s going to stay dry from now on, so maybe harvest go a little smoother.

 It seemed like more people in this area had started with corn, and now they’re really getting into beans. I think everybody around here is just kind of really getting into the groove of harvest.

A lot of the tops were blown out of the corn, but as far as the main stalks where the ears are, it’s really standing pretty well. I noticed in some of the corn that we have shelled the stalks look kind of black and gray. I had to wash the windows a lot on the combine because there’s a lot of black dust.

We had to run some of the corn through the dryer because it was starting to sprout. I haven’t seen any of the beans sprouting so far. Corn has been running about 20% moisture. Going through the field, it will be about 18% moisture, and then you run into some that gets up to 26% moisture. That has been surprising.