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Fall harvest

Buckhunter92

Buckhunter92

Active Member
The drought an hot weather in August smoked the crops around the cedar falls area. Have seen 3 fields picked already. Just wondering what everyone else is seeing in there part of the state
 
Southwest Iowa — the cattle farmers just started chopping corn. Haven’t seen any combines running yet.


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My guys will start cutting beans this week. Also High moisture corn is coming out. We are about 7-10 days away from full blown harvest. The earlier the better as far as I'm concerned
 
There was a combine taking out a field of corn on the west side of Interstate 380 last Friday morning when I ran to the Cedar Rapids airport. Took a drive up to Central City on Sunday, soybean fields south of Solon had no leaves. There were corn fields that had been nosed into with a combine, end rows taken off, etc. Neighbor was done chopping silage two weeks ago. A hayfield that yielded 82 big rounds first cutting of 2022 had a third cutting recently that netted 10 big rounds. Hay will be tight this winter, so ran a steer to the locker.
 
Not far from gunrunner, one neighbor started running corn the last day of august. Plenty of corn coming out since and some beans started yesterday. Alfalfa has done surprisingly well here this year.


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I'm no farmer for sure, so can someone answer a question for me please? In a dry year, with a dry forecast, what is the reason for pulling your corn so early at anything above 15-16%? Will it not dry down naturally? Seems like lost money paying for propane when the same result will happen naturally.

Thanks in advance for the education!
 
Wapsi Tree Rat said:
I'm no farmer for sure, so can someone answer a question for me please? In a dry year, with a dry forecast, what is the reason for pulling your corn so early at anything above 15-16%? Will it not dry down naturally? Seems like lost money paying for propane when the same result will happen naturally.

Thanks in advance for the education!
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When you have 200+ bushel corn standing good and moisture is at 17-18% you harvest. Why wait till snow or winter hits or a big windstorm nocks it down. Good weather now, fields are dry so not making tracks, and plans to finish harvest early leads to more time available to bowhunt this fall.
 
Harvesting down corn is a nightmare. Everyone has a different style, but to us, standing corn is worth a lot. If a guy had 1 or 2 fields only, and could keep an eye on the forecast and keep checking the plant integrity, then it's fine to hold off. Another thing to mention is phanton yield loss. Google it to learn, but basically corn yields more when you pick it wetter vs drier. Can't hit it all perfect, but most guys need to get started so they can get finished. An average harvest for us takes 5 wks. Depending on when you start, you can gamble a little. Hate to start messing with November weather.
 
And to reiterate gunrunr's point about dry fields. Mudding a crop out of saturated fields is also a nightmare. Propane is cheap compared to the agony of a mudfest. Our driest corn hand tested 23% today, so add 2% more for what it would run from the combine, and we still have a week or more to wait. I'll probably start at 20-21% a week from now. Every operation is different.
 
Local corn is coming out here in Central Iowa at 20-21%, beans are changing fast. Things are looking good here. If it stays dry things will be out before we know it.


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I talked with a neighbor today that sells seed and he had a customer pulling 280 bushel an acre corn off a sand river bottom farm. There is a lot of crop to haul out of the field for as dry as it was this year.


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crietveld said:
I talked with a neighbor today that sells seed and he had a customer pulling 280 bushel an acre corn off a sand river bottom farm. There is a lot of crop to haul out of the field for as dry as it was this year.


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If they got 280 bushel off sand, they either had rain or they are irrigated. I've heard of sub 20 bushel an acre in my area.
 
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