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Heavy rainfall; wet, cloudy weather; and even some snowfall from Oct. 20-25 has worsened the already-dismal harvest concerns for 2009 in many areas of Minnesota. Very little progress was made on the 2009 corn and soybean harvest this past week in many areas of the state. Fortunately, the short-term weather forecast for last week of October sounds a bit more favorable to resume harvest in some areas. Harvest progress varies greatly throughout the region. In many areas of south-central Minnesota, soybean harvest is 65-70% complete, and some corn has been harvested. However, in many other portions of southern and western Minnesota, less than half of the soybeans and very little corn have been harvested at this point.

As we progress toward November, the harvest delays, especially for unharvested soybeans, become a much larger concern. The probability of higher field loss to the mature, unharvested soybeans increases greatly later in the harvest season. There is also some concern with unharvested corn in fields that are susceptible to stalk breakage, due to stalk diseases and corn root damage, especially with the likelihood of stronger winds in November. The wet field conditions are also delaying fall tillage, as well as fall manure and fertilizer applications in many areas. Most livestock producers empty their manure storage facilities annually in the fall, so the manure can be properly injected into the soil to capture full fertilizer value, and to reduce the potential for nutrient runoff.

In addition to the very wet field conditions, the weather patterns have not been conducive to natural drydown of the grain in the field. Many of the soybeans being harvested in the past couple of weeks have been at 16-19% moisture or higher. At that moisture level, soybeans will only be viable in storage for 30 days or less without supplemental drying. If producers plan to store soybeans into the winter and spring months, they should run the soybeans through a crop dryer to reduce the moisture content to 12-13% moisture for safe storage. Drying soybeans usually requires lower temperatures and more time than drying corn, in order to reduce heat damage to the soybeans. For more information on drying wet soybeans, go to the University of Minnesota Extension Service Web site.

The kernel moisture content of the corn has remained quite high in most areas in late October. Most corn hybrids were being harvested at 25-30% moisture last week in south-central and southwest Minnesota, with corn moisture levels still above 30% in other areas. Most producers have left the corn in the field as long as possible to maximize field drydown of the corn, in order to reduce the increased corn drying costs. However, further natural drydown of the corn in the field is likely to be quite slow after Nov. 1. Corn needs to be dried to about 15-16% moisture for safe on-farm storage until the following spring or summer, when it is normally hauled to market. This is likely to result in drying costs of 50-80¢/bu., or more for many producers in 2009, which will add to already high input costs for the 2009 corn crop.

Very Good Corn Yields

Many growers in south-central and southwest Minnesota who have harvested some corn have been reporting good to excellent corn yields in 2009, with many whole-field yields of 180 bu./acre or higher being reported. Corn yields are generally quite variable across the region, depending on planting date and summer rainfall frequency and amounts. Soybean yields in 2009 have been even more variable, depending on the summer rainfall and other growing season factors. Whole-field soybean yields have varied from about 35 to over 50 bu./acre in south-central Minnesota, with yields of 45-53 bu./acre quite common in the southern portion of the region, and yields of 38-46 bu./acre more common in central and northern portions of the region.