|
Snow further dampens hopes for easy harvest |
|
|
|
|
Thursday, 15 October 2009 |
 By MICHELLE ZLOMKE
Chief Managing Editor
After early reports that Nebraska farmers could expect high yields this season, snow blanketed much of the state, jeopardizing those predictions. Crop consultant Larry Leibhart of Merna said the early snow and continued cool temperatures follow a cool growing season that delayed harvest and will stunt yields.
“I would say we are two to three weeks behind the 10-year harvest average,” Leibhart said.
Leibhart said he calculated local crops had 2,450 growing degree days this season. That’s about 250 units behind the long-term average in the area. Growing degree days that push a crop toward maturity are calculated by looking at high and low temperatures each day during the growing season, Leibhart explained.
“Basically, the growing season ended this weekend,” Leibhart said. “The fact that the growing season ended before the crops reached maturity means they got shorted.”
Leibhart said he estimates that less than 5 percent of corn in the area had been picked, and that corn was about 30 percent moisture.
“By Oct. 15, a lot of the corn should be around 20 percent,” he said. Elevators typically reduce the price they pay for corn above 15 percent moisture.
The high moisture content in the corn means farmers must choose whether to absorb the costs of drying the corn out at the bin, or leaving it in the field.
“It’s not wise to leave corn in the field to get to 15 percent,” Leibhart said. “The longer corn stays out there in wet conditions, the more likely you are to get fungal diseases and rot. And when you freeze corn, it weakens the stock.”
Leibhart said the best that could occur now is that temperatures moderate and there is little wind for the next few weeks. |
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 21 October 2009 )
|
Huskers.com
