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Harvest this year is early and progressing well due to weather

Pat Brown combines a corn crop on a beautiful sunny afternoon in southern Huntington County on Wednesday, Sept. 29.
Pat Brown combines a corn crop on a beautiful sunny afternoon in southern Huntington County on Wednesday, Sept. 29. Photo by Scott Trauner.

According to a recent study by the Purdue University Extension Office, this year's corn harvest is rapidly progressing, due to an earlier start and favorable weather conditions.

Bob Nielson, professor of agronomy at Purdue University stated that the crop has grown quickly and matured early. It has dried well in the field, which means farmers should spend less on mechanized drying methods to bring grain down to desired moisture levels. Most of the crop could be harvested by early October if Indiana continues to have dry weather.

Nielsen said grain quality is higher than last year in part because of fewer disease problems.

"We had a high amount of ear rot last year, causing problems with storage," he said. "We didn't have as much this year. That, combined with early harvest, contributes to higher quality."

A Sept. 20 crop report by the Indiana Agricultural Statistics Service showed that last year, no corn had been harvested by Sept. 19. The 27 percent of corn harvested as of Sept. 19 this year was well above the five-year average of 6 percent.

The report also showed that 88 percent of corn was mature, compared with last year's 13 percent and the five-year average of 44 percent.

The statistics service rated crop condition at 12 percent excellent, 44 percent good, 27 percent fair, 12 percent poor and five percent very poor. The 56 percent good to excellent crop rating compares with 62 percent good to excellent on Sept. 19 last year. Moisture content of this year's harvested corn is averaging 17 percent.

Ed Farris, agriculture and natural resource educator, Purdue Extension, Huntington County office, echoed the same sentiments regarding Nielson's report.

"I think that you will find that the next report (Sept. 27), will show even higher harvesting numbers especially for our county," Farris stated. "We had a very good week last week and if the weather holds up, our harvesting numbers should be in the high 40s if not 50 percent."

He added that although Huntington County is not as far ahead as most other counties, the reason is not weather related, but has to do with maturity rates of some of the hybrids planted.

Yield numbers are also slightly down, but farmers are being spared an extra expense as compared to last year, Farris said.

"Last year we had a lot of moisture and farmers had to spend money to dry their crops," he noted. "The rain brought a higher yield, but also had its downside as well, including mold."

He added that some farmers were harvesting corn in December last year because they had to wait for the fields to dry out.

"The average is about 160-170 bushels per acre," stated Farris. "On some really good soil, I'm hearing up to 200 bushels."

He added that the price of corn this year is good and even with the slightly lower yields, farmers have a better quality crop and with no expenses needed to dry corn, the profit margin is still good.

"The reason for the lower yield is the hot weather that we received this summer," stated Farris. "This year we had high temperatures for extended periods of times."
Farris said that when the weather is too hot during the grains maturing stage, kernel size and number of ears per stalk can be affected.

"We are definitely doing a lot better than last year
and that includes our soybean harvest numbers as well," he added. "The yields are good, although the moisture percentage is a little lower than we would like."

Current moisture percentages in soybean yields are currently around 10 percent. Farris said that the optimum percentage range is a little over 11 percent.

"We don't want any extremes; not too dry and not too wet either," he stated. "But overall, the numbers are good."
Farris expects that almost 100 percent of all harvesting will be done by mid-October, providing the weather holds up.

"We've had a good year and I expect everyone will be done soon," he said. "A few more weeks of this type of weather will give us more than enough time to get it all done."

For more information on crop harvesting numbers, contact Farris at the Purdue Extension Huntington County Office, at 358-4826.

The office is located at 354 N. Jefferson St., Suite 202.