(Spencer)– Harvest activities across the region are winding down.
Paul Kassel, an agronomist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach in Clay County says the soybean harvest is complete and roughly 75 percent of the corn is now out. But the headaches are far from over for many producers. Kassel says while most of the early planted corn has been coming in with favorable moisture in the teens, most of the late planted crop has levels much higher…
“Ever since that crop matured or got close to maturity there in early October we had unusually below normal temperatures and not just the best dry down. So that’s been the concern. The yield has been there pretty decent. But farmers are having to spend 50, 60, 70 dollars an acre to get that corn dried. And most folks are pretty motivated to get it out of those fields because this time of year you never know what the weather’s going to do.”
Adding to the challege is a shortage of propane to dry that corn…
“We know we have corn in the low 20’s and so forth. We can keep that grain through the winter as long as we have full floor aeration equipment and so forth, fans that keep air on it and keep it cool. But that’s going to mean more decisions in the spring and getting it dried in the spring because most end users don’t take wet corn so it’s got to be dried somewhere along the line. So yeah, maybe we can store it we’re kind of kicking the can down the road and there will be more decisions to make and so forth in the spring, so again, it’s good to get it harvested but we won’t be done with that crop probably until next spring, early summer there.”
And now that most of the harvest is done, Kassel says many producers are turning their thoughts to tillage…
“It might another challenging year for fall tillage and winter application. We’ll have to see. Obviously cold temperatures are coming up which will freeze the soil but maybe a warm up after that and we’ll have to kind of see what happens, so that will be another challenge, too as what kind of fall we have for fall tillage, manure application and fall anhydrous ammonia application, things like that. So stay tuned, I guess there could be more things happening.”
The frigid weather pattern is expected to stick around the next couple of days, with some moderation Friday and into the upcoming weekend.
