Nebraska corn farmers plagued by poor weather

This year has not been good to Nebraska corn and soybean farmers. An unseasonably cool summer coupled with an unseasonably wet fall has had a major impact on this fall’s harvest.

This time of year, farmers are usually looking at prime harvest conditions, 60 degrees, with a light breeze. Lately though, conditions have been far from first rate. The recent wet and cloudy weather has proved a major detriment toward farmers looking to harvest this year’s crop.

“We got all of the beans out, but we barely started on the corn,” said Katie Frenzen, a freshman agricultural education major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, whose family farms several thousand acres.

Frenzen speculates that her family will be harvesting corn through November and possibly into December.

In order to harvest corn without needing to dry it, the crop has to have a moisture content of about 15 percent. Frenzen’s family is looking at about 20-25 percent moisture in their corn this year, she said.

For Todd Hassebrook, a corn and soybean grower in Platte County, Neb., getting the corn out of the field has been a bigger task this year than in the past. Currently Hassebrook’s crop is at 18 percent moisture, and in some areas of irrigated land, the moisture is as high as 26 percent.

“We like to combine at about 20 percent (moisture) so we don’t have to dry down too much,” Hassebrook said.

For farmers like Hassebrook and the Frenzen family, drying the crop is going to be necessary to get the crop to the proper moisture level. This can be done in several ways, by drying on site in bins or sending the crop to the local co-op and having it dried in an elevator. Drying in the bin is usually the preferred method, but with limited space it is advantageous to send the crop to the elevator. The problem with that method is cost.

Nebraska farmers are also concerned with two cold fronts that are expected to hit the state – the first is expected to hit Western Nebraska early this week and the second, more powerful front, to hit the first few days in November.

These storms could bring more than just cold weather and rain.

“Any time there is a chance of snow, it is worrisome because the weight of the snow can break the stem and knock the corn down,” Hassebrook said.

Having the corn on the ground presents problems for machine harvesting and leaves much of the crop on the ground.

Frenzen’s family is looking forward to a possible freeze to help dry out the corn, but snow is still a major concern.

This possible moisture-laden storm would also prevent the corn from drying properly and lead farmers to incur another cost of having to dry using heat and propane. This is not only more expensive but also tends to cause the corn to shrink. This costs the farmer money in both propane and also in the number of bushels brought to the co-op.

According to a recent article in the Lincoln Journal Star, the last time a harvest was this late was back in 1982. Now, Farmers are hoping for a reprieve from the wet weather just long enough to get the crop into the bin, but with the current patterns, things aren’t looking too sunny.

ashleyburns@dailynebraskan.com