Big beans, full pods
At almost 4 million bushels of soybeans taken, harvest could be ‘a record year’
Staff writer
With about 3.6 million bushels of soybeans packed into county elevators and more left to come as of Tuesday, area cooperative contacts believe it is already a record harvest.
With about 5 percent of soybeans left to come in, Nathan Fish, elevator manager for Cooperative Grain and Supply in Hillsboro, said the business has taken 150 percent of what was harvested last year.
“The yields have been incredible,” Fish said. “It’s going to be a record year. We’ve taken 1,434,897 bushels of soybeans between all our elevators, and they’re looking real good, bigger than past years, full pods.”
Agri Trails Cooperative staff in Hope reported that Durham elevator had taken 272,038 bushels of soybeans, Lincolnville had 570,146 bushels, and Tampa had 634,396 bushels as of Nov. 2, with about 50 to 65 bushels per acre.
Estimating about 10 percent left to go, Chuck Knight, Mid-Kansas Coop Association location manager, said Peabody and Florence elevators have taken almost 700,000 bushels of soybeans.
“It’s been a fantastic year for beans,” Knight said. “The trucks have been pretty much non-stop for the past week. We’ve had years like this, but it’s a bigger crop than last year. I don’t know if it’s a record year, but it might be a record for amount of beans planted and bushels per acre.”
He said there were more acres of beans, and much less milo, planted than normal in the southern part of the county. Fish believed the same was true in central parts of the county, as did Agri Trails staff.
“We’ve taken a lot less milo,” Fish said. “The price went way down because it costs too much to grow. The sugarcane aphids and head worms were tough last year.”
Favorable weather for growing and cutting has helped farmers get crops in and out of fields swiftly, Knight said.
Soybean prices reached as high as $9.20 per bushel Oct. 27 but dropped slightly to $8.95 per bushel Nov. 2, according to information form Team Marketing Alliance, available on Cooperative Grain and Supply’s website.
“Most farmers are feeling excellent about their beans,” Fish said. “They’re going to be making some money.”