MoneyTuesday, October 16, 2007 5:45 PM CDT

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Farmers ahead of schedule in finishing harvest

By Michelle Koetters
mkoetters@pantagraph.com

BLOOMINGTON — Farm work is a little different this year. Many area farmers began the 2007 crop season about a week late because of rain, but they caught up and got ahead, starting and finishing harvest before the usual early November completion.

“It’s earlier than normal, and it’s going faster than normal. It hasn’t been slowed down or stopped by any rain,” said Dennis Vercler, director of news and communications for the Illinois Farm Bureau in Bloomington. “Once they started combining, there was nothing to stop them.”

Central Illinois farmers have harvested 95 percent of their corn and 92 percent of their soybeans, according to the Illinois Agricultural Statistics Service. The rest of the state’s farmers have harvested 81 percent of the state’s corn, 20 percent more than the five-year average, and 86 percent of the bean crop, compared to the 72 percent five-year average.

Corn and soybeans farmer Fred Grieder of Carlock is one of those early finishers.

“It’s just been a very unusual harvest,” Grieder said.

In addition to the early harvest, corn dried quickly, yields are some of the best ever and prices are good, Grieder said.

Lower-than-average rainfall and higher-than-average temperatures contributed to a fast harvest.

The average rainfall in Normal last month was 1.94 inches, about an inch less than normal, said state climatologist Jim Angel of the Illinois State Water Survey. About an inch of rain Tuesday morning pushed October’s rainfall to 2.58 inches, compared to the normal 2.85 inches, he said.

Hot and windy days helped dry corn in the fields, meaning farmers also saved money on drying costs at the elevators, Vercler said.

Farmers can spend 15 to 20 cents per bushel on drying charges, Grieder said.

“With no drying charges, it adds to your bottom line,” he said.

Normal’s average temperature in September was 1.2 degrees above normal, while temperatures this month have been about 8 degrees higher, Angel said.

High yield expectations and prices mean more good news.

Several McLean County farmers have seen corn yields as high as 225 bushels an acre, said Barry Soliday, assistant vice president and farm manager with Bloomington’s Soy Capital Ag Services. Average or above-average bean yields ranging from about 50 to 60 bushels an acre are surprisingly good considering the lack of moisture, he said.

Last year, McLean County produced an average of 182 bushels of corn per acre and 54 bushels of soybeans per acre.

The price for a bushel of corn is about $3.25 while soybeans can bring in $9.40 now, Soliday said. A few years ago, farmers received about $2 for corn and $6 for soybeans at harvest, he said.

But an early harvest also means farmers have to resist the temptation to finish the year’s field work immediately.

Farmers continue with some post-harvest tillage work and fertilizer applications, but they are waiting for soil temperatures to drop below 50 degrees before they can apply nitrogen, Vercler said.

“A farmer would really need to be attentive to the forecast,” said Bob Scott, Illinois State Water Survey water and atmospheric monitoring program director. “Make sure there’s no warm periods of several days in the near future,”

In the meantime, farmers can find plenty of other work to do earlier than usual, such as tillage, soil testing and exploring fertilizer options, Soliday said. Some farmers also can now complete those rainy day jobs they didn’t do during harvest, such as bookkeeping, Grieder said.

“By being a little early, it leaves a lot of time for those kinds of issues,” Soliday said.

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