KEN EXUM/The Register-Mail

Tim Dace, Hermon Elevator location manager, walks alongside the facility's 1,050-feet long, 26-feet high and 130-feet wide corn pile Oct. 10.

Bin buster

Storage in demand for big harvest

Sunday, October 21, 2007

By JOANIE STIERS

The Register-Mail

A golden pile of corn covering the area of about three football fields sits at the Hermon Elevator. The outdoor pile, mostly covered with a tarp, holds 1.35 million bushels, more corn than the elevator's available corn storage of 1 million bushels in its silver, steel bins.

"This is the largest crop we've had by far," said Tim Dace, location manager for this Riverland FS elevator in Hermon, southeast of Abingdon.

Lots of storage is needed this fall because this year's corn crop is likely the best and biggest ever grown in west-central Illinois. Riverland FS with its network of four elevators is using more on-ground corn storage than ever, adding to the 38.4 million bushels in temporary and emergency storage permits already issued by the state's agriculture department. The department anticipates reaching the 121 million bushels in temporary storage permitted last year, a spokesman said.

Soybean yields are average and local corn yields are outstanding, in the range of upper 100s to more than 200 bushels per acre. Knox County averaged 167 bushels per acre for corn the last five years, according to the Illinois Agricultural Statistics Service.

Avon farmer Kevin Eathington said his family's corn is averaging 10 to 40 bushels per acre better than usual. Soybeans are doing well, too, yielding close to the farm's average of 50 to 55 bushels per acre. And though soybeans are not getting the spotlight with visible outdoor piles, the oilseed crop's prices are strong, making it as profitable or more to grow as corn, Eathington said.

Corn has the attention because Illinois farmers are now harvesting the largest acreage of corn on record, according to the Illinois Agricultural Statistics Service. The state's farmers planted more corn in response to higher market prices driven largely by the demand for corn-based ethanol fuel. The export market also is strong because of the weak U.S. dollar. In other words, U.S. commodities look cheap to foreign countries.

Corn acres are up and corn yields are big. Elevators are seeing new farmer customers who for the first time are producing beyond what they can store on their own farms.

"I think the large corn crop is good for the entire community," said Marty Anderson, partner with Galesburg-based GrainStore Elevators "It boosts on-farm incomes, and all the grain elevators and everybody in the marketing chain stands to benefit from the crop."

Elevators prepared for the volume. Riverland FS provided 30 percent more storage capacity this fall. GrainStore, a network of eight elevators in the region, early in the harvest season relocated grain from its smaller facilities to those with larger capacity, Anderson said.

The work has allowed both companies to accept grain during all business hours of the day. Some elevators in the area have had to close early some days because they were at capacity before normal business hours ended.

"One of the problems we're having is getting enough trucks to move grain where it needs go," said Lynn McClure, grain manager for Riverland FS.

Riverland hires truckers to haul grain to cities along the Illinois River.

"People call every day wanting trucks," said Ronnie Cottom, owner of Cottom Trucking. "Farmers are trying to get it out of the field, and a lot of these elevators have about all they can handle."

The Wataga-based trucking company is running all eight of its grain trucks this fall, when it usually runs six and leaves two in reserve. Ronnie now is driving full-time and he hired another trucker. The crew works longer hours but still has to turn away more business this year than in the past, Cottom said.

The big harvest is good for agribusiness.

"It's great," said Dace, who has worked 18 years at Hermon Elevator. "It's how we make money."