December 8, 2009
By Rick Barrett
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By now, Walworth County farmer David Adams should have put away his grain harvesting machinery.
Not this year, however, as Adams and hundreds of other Wisconsin farmers struggle to harvest a wet, late corn crop.
Photo: A grain truck passes by a field of corn waiting to be harvested Tuesday near Campbellsport in Fond du Lac County. About 23% of the state’s corn has yet to be harvested (Mark Hoffman)
As of Monday, about 23% of the state's corn-for-grain was still in the fields - almost unbelievable for early December, according to University of Wisconsin Agricultural Extension agents.
Nationwide about 12% of the corn crop remains unharvested, also unusual for this time of year.
A tepid growing season, followed by weeks of rain at harvest time, left farmers behind schedule.
"Now with the snow, it's going to be even worse," said Adams, who still has about 30% of his corn crop unharvested.
"Some corn may get left in the field just because I may not have a choice," Adams said.
Nationwide, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has described the grain harvest as "painfully slow" - with farmers running their combines in muddy fields to get the last of their crop picked.
Grain farmers' profits have tumbled because corn prices aren't at the highs of two years ago. Also, farmers are paying more to dry their corn to a level where grain elevators will accept it.
When farmers make less money, it's felt through Wisconsin's economy, where agriculture has a $59.16 billion annual impact.
"It ultimately affects all of us" when fewer dollars are circulated through the state, said David Williams, a UW-Extension associate professor who authored a study on the impact of agriculture on the state's economy.
"It's just like when we lose jobs in manufacturing or tourism," Williams said about a weak farm economy.
The hope for a bountiful fall harvest was turned into a soggy mess with days of heavy rain in October.
Farmers caught a break in the weather in November, but much of the corn still was too wet for grain elevators to accept it. Also, the crop had failed to reach its potential - resulting in disappointing yields per bushel.
"There were fields with good yields. But there's a lot of bad corn out there," said Kevin Jarek, a UW-Extension agent in Outagamie County.
"It's almost unbelievable that we have nearly a quarter of the crop still in the fields," Jarek said.
Corn must be dried to about a 15% moisture level before it's used for corn syrup, ethanol and other products.
Grain elevators are behind on drying high-moisture corn, prompting some farmers to consider hauling their wet crop to barges along the Illinois River and Mississippi River where they're penalized about a dollar of the roughly $3.75-a-bushel market price.
"I am glad that I wasn't a farmer this year. It has been the year that never ends," said John Sanow, an analyst with DTN, a farm information service based in Omaha, Neb.
Typically, Sanow said, farmers need to get about $4 per bushel for corn just to cover their planting, growing and harvesting costs.
There are long lines of trucks waiting to deliver corn to elevators, partly because the elevators' grain dryers haven't been able to keep up with the late surge in the harvest.
Dryers are running 24 hours a day at Racine Grain Co., in Union Grove, where some passing motorists have mistaken the steam for smoke and reported a fire.
"We are doing everything we can to keep up, but the equipment can only handle so much," said Chris Gorman, Racine Grain manager.
There will be corn left in the fields until next spring when it can be harvested if it hasn't been too damaged from winter.
But spring is when farmers should be planting crops rather than losing time harvesting old corn.
"Having grown up on a farm, I know there's nothing worse than working your tail off all year and not being able to get a crop in," Sanow said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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