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Record crop piling up at elevators
By Michelle Koetters
mkoetters@pantagraph.com
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BLOOMINGTON -- Evergreen FS Grain Manager Steve Dennis has never moved so much grain so fast. “We took a record-size crop in a record time period,” Dennis said.

A speedy pace made for a tough harvest season for Evergreen FS Inc., which operates seven elevators in McLean County, including the Yuton Elevator in Bloomington, Dennis said.

Elevators across the county prepared for this fall’s bumper corn crop, but a quicker harvest and high yields meant more corn piles on the ground than ever before at some sites, as elevators waited for the transportation industry to keep pace. Piles that started in late September grew this month as farmers finished harvest ahead of schedule. And they’re not going anywhere anytime soon.

About two million bushels of corn sit on the ground in emergency storage at the Yuton elevator, double the amount from recent years, Dennis said. The Holder elevator has a pile of about 900,000 bushels, about 100,000 to 200,000 bushels more than usual, he said.

That extra corn will cost the company three times more in handling expenses than if it were stored in the elevators, Dennis said.

Grainland Cooperative, which has about 10.3 million bushels of storage space at Eureka, Secor and El Paso grain elevators, also expects to end up with twice as much corn on the ground. That’s even after it added 1.5 million bushels of storage space for this harvest, said Grain Manager Jeff Brooks.

About 1.8 million bushels of corn was on the ground in Eureka Tuesday morning, and a couple hundred thousand more bushels should be added to the piles in the next couple of days, Brooks said.

“We’re putting more out there right now,” he said.

Evergreen FS also added 750,000 bushels of permanent storage space at its McLean elevator this year, for a total company-wide capacity of 10 million bushels, Dennis said. Still, this harvest, the elevators were trying to haul grain out as quickly as the farmers brought it in, he said.

“Trains just couldn’t come fast enough,” Dennis said.

Because some of the seven elevators do not have room for ground storage, Evergreen FS closed early some afternoons and Sundays at some locations, Dennis said. In places like Arrowsmith or McLean, once the elevator is full, it has to stop taking grain and wait for a train or truck to haul it away, he said.

Many farmers also are storing a large portion of their extra yields in hopes of higher prices after harvest, Dennis said. The price of corn Tuesday was $3.33 per bushel.

While Brooks expected more corn as farmers nationwide joined to plant the largest corn crop since World War II, he was a little surprised at local average yields of 200 bushels per acre.

Last year, McLean County produced an average of 182 bushels per acre.

“As things went on, we saw the crop was going to be big. … In the end it was maybe a little bit bigger than we thought it would be,” Brooks said. “The yield was tremendous this year in our area. That just really requires more space.”

Sometimes that need for space translated into a need to wait.

Farmer Scott Hoeft of Bloomington said nearly everything went smoothly when he took his grain to area elevators, but he knows not everyone had a good experience.

Hoeft, who finished his harvest work two weeks early, was fortunate that elevators were able to stay open on the days he was in the area. He only experienced a few longer lines at the start of harvest as farmers concentrated on their corn crop first.

“Sometimes the biggest bottleneck is at the elevator,” Hoeft said. “It’s kind of a rat race there for a few weeks.”

Take a look
Evergreen FS Yuton elevator employees Lars Bloomberg, bottom, and Austin Cranford, work on moving tarps on the 2 million bushels of corn that sit outsude. Two huge piles of corn sit on the ground outside the Yuton Elevator, operated by Evergreen FS, North west of Normal on Monday Oct. 22. Pantagraph/STEVE SMEDLEY
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Reader comments on this story - 5 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

To growing and missed wrote on Oct 25, 2007 9:05 AM:

" You obviously don't know farming. Combines didn't "miss" the grain. Since the grain dried down so fast this fall, there may have been more shattering than normal and grain "popped" from the plant as it was taken into the combine head. This always happens to an extent. The extremely dry conditions made it worse this year. It's not a sign of sloppy practices. The yield loss is virtually nill. "

the poor wrote on Oct 24, 2007 1:06 PM:

" farmers need to get gov handouts "

To growing and missed wrote on Oct 24, 2007 11:53 AM:

" You're probably confusing that with winter wheat that's been drilled after the beans have been harvested. "

growing and missed wrote on Oct 24, 2007 11:38 AM:

" drive through the country and see all the new corn and beans coming up. this is what was missed by the combines and let lay on the ground. if this had all been picked up by the combines the elevators would be in hip big piles of corn and beans. it looks like the farmrs are trying to get a 2nd crop in some fields. "

This years crop wrote on Oct 24, 2007 8:20 AM:

" Is a maize ing!!! "
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