Rainy, cool fall has been hard on harvesters

By Cindy Hodgson
Herald Times Reporter

MANITOWOC — The early onset of a cloudy, rainy and cool autumn has left more corn standing in Manitowoc County fields than normal for this time of year.

Corn in need of warm, dry, sunny, breezy weather has been prevented from drying enough to be harvested for grain, said Scott Gunderson, dairy agent with the Manitowoc County University of Wisconsin-Extension.

It has been "a very challenging growing year this year," he said. During the summer, "we had stretches of three weeks without rain."

Temperatures were the coolest they've been in decades. As a result, most crops, including corn, were two to three weeks behind throughout the season in terms of plant maturity, Gunderson said. Then, several frosty nights stopped plants from growing.

Rain has been plentiful lately, but "now is not the time we really need it," Gunderson said.

"If we can get a couple of weeks of nice weather here in the next month or so, we'll be fine," said Tom Schneider, director of the USDA Farm Service Agency in Manitowoc.

In terms of predicting corn yields, "it looks better now than it did a month or two ago," Schneider said. But "it's still going to be below normal."

Most corn in Manitowoc County, perhaps about 65 percent, is harvested for silage, which means the entire plant is chopped up and used as feed. The rest is harvested for grain, which means only the kernels are used. That occurs later in the season after corn matures and dries, Schneider said.

Even some corn being grown for silage still is in the field, Gunderson said, although he believes the yield will end up "very close to our county average for corn silage." The average is 16 tons per acre, with an acre being about the size of a football field.

Some of the corn intended for grain won't make it to that stage and will need to be harvested for silage or as high-moisture corn, he said.

High-moisture corn typically is harvested when it has a moisture content of 25 percent to 30 percent, and it is stored in upright, oxygen-limited silos or in bunkers, Schneider said. Dry corn is stored in bins. The ideal moisture content for harvesting dry corn is 15.5 percent. Above that, it will start to mold when exposed to air. When farmers must harvest their dry corn at a moisture level higher than 15.5 percent, they run it through a dryer. They try to avoid that because of the cost associated with operating the dryer.

Dean Fischer of D&R Fischer Dairy on Humpty Dumpty Road near Reedsville said he grows corn that is harvested for silage and grain. He does the harvesting for silage himself and hires a custom harvester to harvest for grain.

Fischer said he has only a little bit of silage left to harvest, but it's three weeks to a month behind the normal schedule.

"Yieldwise, I was quite surprised," he said.

Typical yield for silage is 15 to 20 tons per acre in Manitowoc County, and his has been ranging from 10 to 25 tons with the average being about 18.

Fischer said he plans to have his high-moisture corn harvested in the next week or two, but he won't be harvesting any dry corn this year. It would be close to the end of November before it would be dry enough, he said. Harvesting too late in the season can impede manure spreading because farmers in Manitowoc County are not allowed to spread manure on frozen ground.

Jeff Zutz, a farmer and crop consultant who also does some custom harvesting, said he usually is almost done harvesting soybeans by now, but that's not the case this year.

"We're just getting started on soybeans and haven't even thought about getting into the corn yet," said Zutz, who operates Zutz Farms on Wisconsin 151 near Valders. "It's going to be late."

Normally, Zutz starts harvesting high-moisture corn in the middle of October.

He said the corn crop "looks decent" in light of conditions this year. Some of the silage yields in the county "were very good," Zutz said, but grain yields will be down.

Zutz usually sells dry corn to a co-op, but this year he plans to harvest more as high-moisture corn and to try to sell it to dairy farmers. However, with milk prices low, many of them will find it difficult to pay for feed, he said.

In Manitowoc County, the "vast majority" of the corn grown for silage and grain is used by the farmers who grow it, Gunderson said.

Corn silage provides about half of a dairy cow's forage needs, he said. With 46,000 dairy cows in the county, farmers can make use of it if they have to harvest more corn than usual for silage.

Soybeans

"Soybeans appear to be much more affected," Schneider said. The reason isn't clear but it may be related to plant genetics and type of seeds.

Zutz said his soybeans haven't done very well for the last few years and he expects the yield to be even worse this year. He likes to see 50 bushels per acre and guesses he may have 25 to 35 bushels this year. Countywide, the soybean yield is ranging from 25 to 50 bushels per acre, he said.

Schneider estimated the county's yield would be down at least 25 percent.

Jim Loefer doesn't agree.

"We haven't seen that so far," said Loefer, part owner and general manager of CP Feeds in Valders, which processes corn and soybeans for feed.

Loefer said he thinks the soybean yield will be close to average, although the crop is two to three weeks behind schedule.

CP Feeds is about one-third finished with its soybean processing for the season, while normally the business would be about two-thirds done, he said.

Loefer said he hasn't received any corn for processing yet. CP Feeds usually starts processing corn around Oct. 10, but this year it likely will be the first of November. Typically, processing is completed before deer-hunting season, but he expects it to continue into December this year.

Even though it's behind schedule, "it looks like the corn crop is close to average," he said.

Some farmers use soybeans as feed for their own cows, but "most of the soybeans in this county get sold," Schneider said. Farmers sell them to co-ops and feed mills.

However, corn and soybeans grown in Wisconsin "have no impact on national markets. We're just not big enough," he said.

Besides, "nationally, they're predicting record crops," Schneider said.

That means prices for corn, and hence for gasoline or grain-based foods, won't be affected.

And it's not too late "to harvest decent crops" in Manitowoc County, Schneider said.

"We're still within normal harvest times for all our crops," he said.

Cindy Hodgson: (920) 686-2966 or chodgson@htrnews.com