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November 4, 2009

Fall harvest a slow go

Lots of corn and soybeans yet to be harvested

By Tim Krohn

BERNADOTTE — Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau was waiting for the clouds to clear Wednesday morning so she and her husband, Steve, could try to get more acres of soybeans out of the field and into bins.

“It’s been wet and slow. People are really struggling to get the beans out,” said Molnau. “The days are shorter and we don’t get many drying days.”

The Molnaus run 1,300 acres of corn and soybean land near Bernadotte, southeast of Winthrop.

“It’s a typical farmer issue — you do what you can, but then you just wait on the weather.”

While working around the weather is typical, this year’s harvest is anything but.

The corn and soybean harvest progress through October was the slowest ever.

The latest USDA report shows that just 12 percent of the state’s corn is out of the field. That’s 39 points behind last year and 57 points behind the five-year average.

Just over half the soybeans are harvested, compared to the five-year average of 97 percent.

Wayne Schoper, county Extension educator for Brown and Nicollet counties, said a bright spot has been that yields are surprisingly good considering a drier than normal summer.

“For corn, we’re seeing 180 to 225 bushels an acre. Beans are in the low to mid 40s.”

Besides rain keeping equipment out of fields, the precipitation has kept the moisture content in the grain much higher than farmers like to see.

Moisture content of corn is about 25 percent, but it must be dried to 15 percent moisture content to be stored without molding.

Corn-drying costs are running three to four times higher than in recent years.

Soybeans are at about 15 percent moisture and have to be dried to 13 percent for storage.

“There’s a huge cost with drying,” Molnau said. “You could blow a dollar a bushel just drying them down.”

The wet fall has brought another problem, Schoper said.

“We’re seeing some mold on corn. A lot of it seems to just be superficial, but we’re seeing some mold with aflatoxins.”

Aflatoxins can be dangerous if fed to livestock, leading Schoper to tell livestock farmers to have their feed tested.

The Molnaus are about one-third done with their harvesting.

“Usually, the first couple of weeks of November you’re just finishing up plowing,” Molnau said.

Getting soybeans out of the field is a priority with farmers. If snow comes, harvesting the low soybean plants is impossible. Corn can be harvested even after a few inches of snow are on the ground.

Schoper said the forecast for sunny and dry weather through Monday is welcome.

“I think if the weather holds, we’ll get all the soybeans out by this weekend.”

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