Rain puts farmers ‘miles behind’

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October 9, 2009

Wet weather affects harvest

BY ANNA HERKAMP The Commercial-News Fri Oct 09, 2009, 11:55 PM CDT

DANVILLE — The harvest season is now at least a month behind, as area farmers have struggled to get in partial days of combine work between heavy rainfalls.

Rossville area farmer Brian Andrews recalls years where he’s eaten Thanksgiving dinner with his family, and then hurried back out to the fields to finish another day of the corn harvest. This year might be one of those years.

Andrews said this week, he’s mostly concerned with disease and possibly the crop falling down into the soil.

“And it’s not drying, which is already a problem,” he said.

Years back, Andrews remembered the break-out of a black mold in the corn crop that required every load of corn to be inspected with a black light. Harvest was significantly slow that year as well.

The excess rain the area has seen could contribute to such issues this fall. Danville had received 0.75 of an inch of rain Friday as 4 p.m. That came on top of more than 1.5 inches of rain received Thursday. Parts of southeastern Vermilion County received even more rain than those totals.

The growing season saw a loss of many heat degree days, and now the grain is wetter than it was even last week, when many growers were concerned about drying costs. Now, those costs will most certainly cut into many farmers’ bottom lines.

Andrews harvested some soybeans Wednesday and hoped to get in more harvesting done Thursday, but it had already started raining by 7:30 a.m.

“The soybeans will pick up moisture pretty quick,” he said.

He anticipates the beans picking up another 2 or 3 percent in moisture, which most certainly will lead to drying costs. Otherwise, the elevators will dock the crop.

“The extended rain just complicates an already later harvest,” he said.

Andrews is done with about three quarters of his soybeans and 25 percent of his corn at this point. It’s too wet to do much with corn.

“We’re drying it here on the farm, and it’s going to be terribly expensive to do that (and) even more expensive to take it to the elevator.”

It’s been years since harvest lasted into Thanksgiving and Christmas, but that may happen, he said. Then again, the weather could turn more favorable in coming weeks, he said.

“I hope for Indian summer to jump in pretty quickly,” he said.

Allerton farmer David Downs describes his harvest season as “miles behind” where it should be this time of year.

“It’s just another hurdle we have to overcome,” he said of the harvest downfalls. “We’ve harvested 300 acres of soybeans and no corn, so it’s pretty frustrating. We’re way behind where we expect to be, and the future doesn’t look at lot better either.”

Downs also is concerned about how quickly the corn can get dried down at this point.

He’s read some reports of a severe ear mold infestation in corn, and hopes that the issue doesn’t spread as badly as he fears it could.

Downs doesn’t dry the crop on his property. He’s not sure exactly what the financial implications will be for drying costs on top of this year’s high input costs, but, but “it’s not going to be good,” he said.

Although years like these are stressful, they aren’t unheard of, Downs said.

“I’ve been here before. It’s never fun, and you always just hope you can get though these things and start over again,” he said.

For now, he’ll wait for the rain to stop.

“Fall harvest is the big headache we’re facing, and you know, we can’t do anything about it … (We’ll) do the best we can … It’s part of the game.”

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