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RSSCentral Illinois farmers harvesting early
CHARLESTON - Area farmers have begun harvesting corn in the last week, some saying it's nearly two weeks earlier than usual.
The reasons? A hot summer and uncertainty about the weather in the coming weeks.
Alan Metzger started harvesting his corn Aug. 31, the earliest he has harvested in 15 years.
Metzger said he started planting corn April 20, the normal time, but the hot and often dry summer caused his corn to mature very quickly. He said the rain that did fall on his fields between Charleston and Mattoon "were all at the right time" for his dry weather-resistant hybrid corn.
"The earlier you get it out, the less chance you have of weather complicating the harvest early on. It's good to get it out early," Metzger said.
He added his soybean crop will not be ready for harvest until the normal time in mid-September.
Coles County Farm Bureau Manager Mark Phelan said early planting time and the right weather conditions have created the opportunity for early corn harvests in many instances.
Phelan said planting corn early comes with the risk of frost damaging a crop, but it can also benefit yields, which is the case this year. He said the early harvests have enabled farmers to get ahead of a projected, hurricane-influenced increase in gas prices and implement their market strategies as soon as possible.
"Grain in hand is cash in hand," Phelan said.
Mike Green of Arthur, who farms in Coles, Moultrie, Douglas and Piatt counties, has been in the fields about four or five days earlier than usual.
"The last 10 or 15 years, everything's gotten earlier,"he said. "The crop is racing toward maturity. It's time to go. You never know what Mother Nature's gonna do."
Bill Graham, who farms north of Coles Station in Coles County, started harvesting corn Tuesday, a week to 10 days earlier than usual, because he's been watching the weather.
"The corn is drier than Iexpected, and I've been looking on the radar. One of those hurricanes is going to come up this direction and then we'd be later than normal," Graham said.
The only downside to harvesting now, he said, is that the corn may be a little wetter than normal.
Kara Kinney, farm bureau manager for Douglas and Moultrie counties, said the crops are dry enough to harvest.
"We had 95 (degrees) with wind this weekend, so that dried them out quick," Kinney said.
If the weather holds, Graham said he could have his corn out of the fields in three weeks. If it rains in the next couple of days, he'll switch to harvesting soybeans, which aren't ready yet, he said.
"That's why everybody's concentrating on corn,"Graham said. "Another week and everyone will be cutting beans. When they're ripe, you have to cut them. Corn, when it sets, it'll do all right."
Contact Lisa Bartelt at lbartelt@jg-tc.com or 238-6858. Contact Rob Stroud at rstroud@jg-tc.com or 348-5734.
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