Small Town News

Projection: Late but great

---

2009 HARVEST Barring a hot September, farmers will be behind as they bring in their row crops -- but the payoff could be big

Three months have passed since the growing season took hold, and area farmers today are hoping for the same thing they were hoping for in July.

Heat.

That's not as likely now as it was then, however, as mild September days traditionally give way to cool September nights, and occasionally the feared "f' word shows up.

Frost.

"In July, when guys were worried (about the unseasonably cool temperatures), I said, 'Don't worry -- we'll get our heat,'" says area farmer and seed corn dealer Stuart Pre-heim. "To my surprise we never really did."

As a result, row crops in the Freeman area are behind on their level of maturity and run the risk of sitting in the fields longer into the fall season, says Preheim, who notes that while the area may steer clear of frost in the next couple weeks, temperatures aren't expected to be above normal.

"I am a lot more concerned about maturity on Sept. 1 than I was on July 1," says Preheim, who adds that a good soaking of heat may be all that separates a great harvest rom a banner one.

"The potential is there for the best crop we've ever had," he says. "We've had enough moisture. Heat is all we need right now."

Assuming the heat doesn't come this month, most farmers will be behind schedule when conditions are finally right for the grain harvest to begin and will probably be bringing in wet corn, says Mike Sayler of Central Farmers Cooperative.

"Right now they should be cutting silage, and that's still two weeks away," Sayler said Monday. "Unless we get a hot September, that's going to put us behind with the harvest.

"I'll be spending a lot of nights drying corn."

Sayler says this year you can most likely disregard a traditional timetable that says the bean harvest begins in the first 10 days of October with corn rolling in the later part of the month.

"We've usually had Thanksgiving off," he says. "We might go past that this year."

Preheim agrees.

"We will definietly have November harvesting," he says. "More than usual."

Of course, the later the harvest goes the better chance of snow ruining what would otherwise be a nice year.

"It would really be disheartening to have this much out there and not be able to go get it," Preheim said.

What is mostly likely to happen will fall somewhere in between the extremes of a hot September and an October or November blizzard, which would still make for a dandy 2009 harvest.

A timely planting season coupled with timely rains throughout the summer -- and the luck of missing out on a number of severe storms that hailed out other regions -- could make it so.

"What it will do exactly is hard to say right now," Sayler said, "but the numbers should look better than we've seen in a while."

Marty Mortensen with the Hutchinson County Farm Service Agency agrees that yields have the potential to be exceptional.

"If I was guessing, I'd say the corn could be between 125 to 150 bushels while the soybeans could be between 40 and 60 bushels per acre," he said. "It's right on target if Mother Nature cooperates the month of September."

Mortensen said the last piece of the puzzle should be avoiding a frost before harvest, but he also noted that there did not appear to be any danger of that happening in the current forecasts.

"That could really change it, but they're not talking about any frost for the next two weeks," Mortensen said. While yields for corn and soybeans are expected to be up, commodity prices are currently down because of those high expectations, Mortensen said.

Locally, corn and beans are currently at $2.74 and $10.85 per bushl, respectively. That's a considerable drop from $5.23 and $12.39 at this time last year.

"Prices have slipped dramatically this summer because of the large crop anticipated," Mortensen said.

That's changing the plans of some producers. Instead of hauling grain to market, many are building extra storage to keep the crop until prices crawl back up.

"A lot of people are building storage," Mortensen said.

The sounds of storage construction and silage cutting are in the air, Mortensen said, and that means the harvest season has nearly arrived.

"They're thinking about cutting silage in another week or so," Mortensen said. "The corn is really starting to dent. It's moving along slowly in the growth process toward maturity. If we can just keep Jack Frost off our front doorstep we'll have a bumper crop on the horizon."



Copyright 2009 Freeman Courier, Freeman, South Dakota. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2009 Freeman Courier Freeman, South Dakota. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

More from Freeman Courier