BILL GAITHER/The Register-MailMatt Stegall, a 24-year-old resident of Abingdon, prepares to dump a load of corn hauled by Link Trucking Co. of Abingdon Thursday afternoon at the GrainStore Elevators location in Henderson.
Even late rain helps local harvest
Wet week allows elevators to free space
Friday, October 21, 2005
HENDERSON - Save for Thursday's rainy conditions, the warm and dry weather this fall has allowed area farmers to get ahead of the harvest game."I think the bean harvest is virtually complete in our area," said Randy Anderson, co-owner of GrainStore Elevators in Henderson. "I think the bean yields are pretty good across the area. Those late August rains really helped."
Anderson estimated the bean harvest is 90 to 95 percent complete, but work remains on the corn harvest. Anderson said about 75 to 80 percent of the corn harvest is finished.
"I think the corn yields are going to be better than people think, still a far cry from last year, but still pretty good," said Anderson. "I think it's pretty high quality corn."
"I think everybody is mildly surprised with the yields," said Joe Evans, plant manager at Ag-Land FS in Williamsfield.
Evans even managed to find a silver lining in Thursday's clouds from a storage standpoint. He said the elevators still had old crop corn from last year, which was putting a stress on the storage availability for the remainder of the harvest.
"The rainy days have kind of helped in a way, allowing us to truck out the old and make room for more corn," said Evans.
Yields exceeding expectations also added to the storage issues, said Evans.
With beans, Evans said most farmers were anticipating yields of 30 to 35 bushels per acre, but the yields are closer to 40 to 50 bushels per acre. The corn yields were anticipated at 90 bushels per acre, but Evans said the yields are coming in 40 to 50 bushels per acre above estimates.
"We're basically done on beans and if the weather cooperates for another 10 days, we should be done with corn," said Evans.
According to the Illinois Agricultural Statistics Service, this year's corn and soybean harvest has progressed faster than last year and the five-year average.
"The harvest weather has been ideal for the dry down and harvesting," said Anderson.
