Staff writer
Farmers began harvesting corn in upland fields around the county this week, with test weights below normal, but coming in nonetheless.
“We’re pecking around some,” said Cooperative Grain & Supply Marion elevator manager Mike Thomas. “The upper fields are ready, but the test weights are not real good.”
Orville Suderman of Hillsboro brought a semi-load of corn in from five miles south of Marion for his son, Dean Suderman.
“It’s dry enough,” he said. “It just a takes a long time to get a full load.”
Test weights for corn usually average around 56 pounds per bushel in Marion County, but Thomas said farmers were not getting too close to that yet this year.
“It’s real hard to get above 50 right now,” he said. “I think it will get better when we get down into the valleys.”
Despite lower yields, workers are pouring concrete footings for a new CGS grain storage bin in Marion, and though it will not be ready to store this season’s corn coming into the facility, Thomas said storage was the name of the game.
“The way the agriculture industry is going, it’s all about speed and space,” he said. “Combines are getting bigger, trucks are getting bigger, we have to be able to take it all in, in a hurry, or they will go somewhere else.”