Late harvest costing corn farmers in crop quality, dollars

A combine sits among unharvested soy beans Monday morning, November 2, 2009, east of Scott City. (Kit Doyle) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Area farmers are working furiously to complete fall corn harvests before the predicted return of wet weather around the middle of November.

The heavy rains that deluged fields the last week of October have wreaked havoc with the harvest of crops that were already well past their traditional harvest dates.

Gerald Bryan, agronomist with the University of Missouri Extension Center in Jackson, said two factors have made the corn harvests late.

"We were basically a month late in planting corn," Bryan said, citing heavy spring rains that delayed planting from the normal April until late May and in some cases early June.

Not only did the corn crop get a late start, but unseasonably cool weather has resulted in a longer growing season to produce a mature crop, Bryan said.

"We had a lot of cool, cloudy days all summer long," Bryan said. He estimated the corn crop has needed two weeks longer than the normal 108 days to produce mature corn from planting to harvest.

Throw in a harvest delayed by muddy fields and the result is a corn crop that is not only late but in many cases below normal quality.

Graphic information from the National Weather Service website shows the area received between four and eight inches above the normal rainfall for the 30-day period preceding Nov. 6, despite a dry week at the end of that reporting period.

The excessive moisture has created complications for farmers that are perhaps more costly than late harvests.

Some farmers are reporting finding mold on ears of corn due to moisture getting trapped under the tight husks. The presence of ear mold results in a lower quality rating at market. "Damaged grain brings a lower price," Bryan said.

The prolonged wet conditions also increase the chance of grain sprouting while still on the stalk.

Even for the fortunate farmers who avoid mold and other fungi on their crop, a high moisture content in the crop will require the time and expense to dry the kernels before transportation to the elevator for sale.

Standard acceptable moisture content for corn is 15 percent, Bryan said. Some farmers are reporting moisture levels of higher than 35 percent after harvest.

Another complication from the late corn harvest is that it delays the planting of winter wheat, which ideally should be done the first half of October. A month delay in wheat planting will likely mean lower yields in the spring, Bryan said, because later planting results in the wheat plant producing smaller tillers, which are the parts of the plant that produce the stem and seed head. "Larger tillers produce better yields," according to Bryan.

While farmers are seeing profits evaporate with every hour, they are proceeding at breakneck speed to get the crop out of the fields. Attempts to interview several farmers about the harvest were unsuccessful.