What to expect from the 2009 harvest season

by Scarlett Solter Miller, posted Nov. 4, 2009

For farmers and farm kids alike, when autumn rolls around it not only means hayrides, corn mazes and Halloween, but also harvest time. 

Missouri is a key state in harvest production, as it ranks 10th in the nation in field corn and seventh in soybeans, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Gary Clark, senior director of market development for the Missouri Corn Growers Association, said if predictions are correct, the 2009 corn crop will be the third largest in Missouri history.

Clark also said that Missouri farmers are expecting to harvest around 3 million acres of corn, with an estimated average yield of 154 bushels per acre. This would result in 462 million bushels, almost 80 million bushels more than 2008.

According to a report released Oct. 19 by the NASS, 93 percent of Missouri’s corn crop has matured, which is 14 days behind normal. 

Clark is citing the wet weather that Missouri has dealt with recently as the main factor affecting harvest. Because of the increased rainfall, corn is being taken out of the field at higher moisture levels around 20 percent.

And, that is putting farmers behind. Corn harvest is 27 days behind normal pace for mid-October. Normally at this time, 77 percent of the corn crop in Missouri has been harvested, and this year just 40 percent is out of the field.

“The wet weather is slowing harvest down,” said Clark. “Our harvest season is mimicking our planting season. Farmers are running a day or two, then forced out of the fields by wet weather conditions.”

Soybeans may also be in for a record year in Missouri. According to Adam Buckallew, director of public relations for the Missouri Soybean Association, production is forecast at 224.7 million bushels, 18 percent above 2008. This would be the largest soybean crop on record in Missouri.

Aiding the abundant crop was an uncharacteristically cool and wet summer.

“The rain can be both a blessing and a curse,” Buckallew said. “Farmers love having plenty of rain and not having to worry about their crop drying out, but on the flipside of that you have some fields that had to be replanted due to flooding.”

Soybean harvest is also affected by the weather, and a NASS report stated that soybean harvest is currently 22 percent complete, compared to 49 percent in average years.

The cool weather also presents optimal conditions for aphid growth in soybeans.  A greater number of infestations in Missouri fields were reported this year than normal because aphids thrive in cooler climates, usually Minnesota and Iowa.

Although there were obstacles because of the cool, wet, weather, Buckallew believes that soybean farmers wouldn’t have asked for different weather.

“If you asked farmers if they would take the weather we had this year as opposed to a normal year, I think most would,” Buckallew said.

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