By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent LANSING, Mich. — Simultaneous corn and soybean harvest has filled up elevators throughout western Michigan and has caused a backup for delivery of some grain. Jeff Johnston, senior grain merchandiser with Zeeland Farm Services (ZFS) in Zeeland, said corn and soybeans being harvested at the same time “is causing a lot of wait at some places.
“Most of our new crop delivery time frame is for October and November delivery,” he said. “The first two weeks of October were just perfect harvest weather here.”
Johnston said harvest conditions were so favorable that ZFS “dropped 20,000 to 30,000 bushels more per day” of soybeans than usual at its facility. “We took in almost a million bushels of beans in just one week’s time,” he said.
With a normal daily crush rate of 28,000-30,000 bushels per day, the increased supply caused a backup for delivery of soybeans and limited hours for delivery, but Johnston said he expects ZFS will go back to regular hours next week. “A lot of the reason we got ahead on beans is because farmers aren’t keeping them in bins on the farm this year. Usually, they would have stored some beans on the farm short-term and then shipped them and refilled their bins with corn. Since beans came off so fast, they’re bringing in beans now that typically would have come in in mid-November,” Johnston said.
He said the soybean quality is good and oil content is higher this year, too – 11-11.5 pounds per bushel, as compared to 10.1-10.3 last year – which equates to a higher dollar value for the crop.
“Looking out our back door for corn and soybean harvest, we’re going to have probably record crops in our area,” Johnston said. “Things look like they’re going to be above average.”
Jim Hilker, professor and extension marketing economist with the Michigan State University Department of Agriculture, Food and Resource Economics, said in the last USDA Crop Production report “they bumped up our projected yield (for corn). We’re expected to have 156 bushels per acre. Last year it was 148, and it was not the quality this year’s crop is.
“There are some unbelievable yields and there are some poor yields. Relative to normal, we have more people with really good and average yields,” Hilker said. “For a vast majority of farmers in Michigan, they are in an ideal situation. They have high prices and high yields.”
Johnston said in western Michigan “yields are doing pretty well, with a lot of people getting 130 to 140 bushels per acre.” Some dry-land corn is going 160 bushels per acre and on irrigated land he said he has heard reports of 200-plus yields. “Some places where they don’t usually get good crops, they’re looking at bumper crops,” he said.
Johnston said limited delivery on corn likely will continue for another week. “Throughout Michigan and the Midwest, rail cars are backed up. They aren’t necessarily behind, but harvest is just so far ahead,” he explained.
Hilker said many elevators are using limited delivery hours to manage the volume being delivered and some are widening basis, which lowers cash price offered to the farmer.
“We’re getting a lot of corn earlier than we thought, before they had things scheduled to move,” he said. All of the grain coming in ahead of schedule “drives the basis wider. Elevators don’t have to pay as much relative to futures price. It’s their message to the farmers.
“The first message they send is they start widening the basis. Then, they close their doors,” Hilker said.
Last week, farmers reported that “harvest is in the home stretch,” according to the agricultural summary from the Michigan Field Office of the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Nearly all of the state’s soybeans were harvested, with farmers reporting that 97 percent were out of the fields, compared to just 58 percent at this time last year.
Corn harvest was reported as 84 percent complete, a dramatic increase over last year, when only 9 percent of the crop had been harvested. |
