Farmers putting in overtime in the fields

LINCOLN — Since Nov. 1, Nebraska and Iowa farmers have been pushing hard to gain ground on a harvest delayed by this fall’s cool, wet weather.

How intense has it been?

So intense that Husker fan Jon Holzfaster of Paxton, Neb., gave away his tickets to the Oklahoma football game last weekend.

Still hoping to get his harvest done by early December, he doubts he’ll make it to any more games this year, unless the weather turns bad.

“I’d rather be picking corn,” Holzfaster said Tuesday.

Statistics released this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture bore out what farmers have been saying in recent weeks. This year’s harvest will be late, but it’s still expected to be a bin buster.

Nationwide, farmers are expected to harvest 12.9 billion bushels of corn, slightly less than was forecast in October, but still the second biggest crop on record, behind 2007’s 13 billion-bushel harvest.

They’re expected to harvest 3.32 billion bushels of soybeans, a 12 percent increase from last year and a record.

Nebraska and Iowa both are predicted to have record corn yields and a record amount of corn harvested. Nebraska also is expected to see a record soybean yield per acre, although with fewer soybean acres planted, total production will not be a record.

Although most soybeans have now been harvested, corn farmers in Nebraska and Iowa are running three weeks or more behind their typical schedule.

Corn prices rose slightly on the Chicago Board of Trade in response to the news that the corn harvest is delayed and will be slightly smaller than predicted. Soybean prices dropped.

Scott Keller, a statistician with the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service in Lincoln, said reports show that farmers made getting their bean crops out of the field the priority.

“They went from 69 percent of the crop harvested to 90 percent — 21 percent of the crop was harvested last week,” he said. “Soybeans looked to be the priority.”

He said soybeans have a greater chance than corn of being damaged while in the field. New corn hybrids have tougher stalks and are holding up better in wet weather.

Holzfaster said his family has been concentrating on picking high-moisture corn, which is sold on contract to livestock feeders. Western Nebraska’s drier climate allows the feeders to store the high-moisture corn in piles on the ground.

But the remainder of the Holzfasters’ crop may still have too much moisture to be sold at their local elevator.

If they decide to harvest the corn without waiting for it to dry further in the field, they will have to incur added expense to mechanically dry it before it can be sold.

« Money

Share