The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
by Dessa Rodeffer, Quill Publisher/Owner
John Twomey reports that with 25% of their corn harvest complete, and soybeans less than 10% harvest is looking good. The 46 million grain facility at Twomey's six locations began taking corn the first week of September when an Iowa farmer in a pocket without any rain had corn mature early.
Farmers are pretty well planting a 50-50 corn-soybean rotation finding a little better yield than when they would put oats or something else in the rotation. With the knowledge of fertilizer and crop disease control using herbicides, farmers find that corn and soybeans produce more cash than oats, rye or wheat in a rotation.
Thus far, "Everything has been kind of a relaxed harvest. The crops are in good shape," John said.
"Maybe a farmer is waiting a little bit longer on harvesting corn, letting it dry down a little bit more......maybe thinking, in some cases, they can reduce drying costs.
"On the other hand, farmers who do harvest a little early, feel that once it is in the bin it is hard for mother nature to take it away from you. So, you avoid the risk of having it knocked down or some other thing. It is just a risk factor some don't want to take."
John predicts by the end of October, if weather cooperates, it will look pretty bare around this country and you will begin to see the horizon again. With the equipment farmers own today, many purchasing semis or hiring their grain hauled, harvest is complete in a much quicker time.
"We are in a very fortunate area, across from the Mississippi River. We gain a higher price for grain because transportation costs are lower. It gives you more flexibility in marketing strategies."
He said, farmers can avoid the hassle of buying and keeping up a semi by hiring someone to haul their grain to a river facility where they gain a higher price for their grain which in return pays the expense of the hauler.
How does harvest compare to last year? John said it is early, but on the corn side early indications suggest across the board we are going to have just as good if not better than last year.
It's early on the soybean side and it is a down year on yields - lot of that is due to a dry spell in August that didn't give soybeans an opportunity to fill out. But, soybean prices are higher in the fall months going into early October than they have been for several years.
"It continues to be a depressed market in corn. Farmers can get a government loan equal to the corn price. Returns are the same. In contrast, the soybean market is a lot higher than a government loan.
With higher prices and lower yields - some point in time it is good to offset the lower prices a little bit if farmer sells. Some people's strategy is that it is going to get higher others think it will go down.
John said, "A farmer told me years ago....
the bear gets some
the bull gets some
but the hog gets none"