Staff writer
To avoid winter blues after the fall harvest, area farmers would do well not to take after their corn prices.
“Corn prices are pretty depressed,” said Phil Timken, location manager of Mid-Kansas Coop Association in Peabody. “It’s going to be pretty tough on the farmer. It’s going to make him stretch his dollar a little further.”
Timken said Peabody’s elevator has taken in about 460,000 bushels of corn, which is 164 percent of its five-year average.
Some farmers told Timken they brought in 100 bushel per acre, but others said they brought in much more.
“It’s been a very good corn crop, probably above average, and the quality is very good,” he said. “But there has been quite a variance. Some guys said they were getting 150 bushels south-east of Peabody.”
Cooperative Grain and Supply grain coordinator Dick Tippin said corn harvest is almost finished in Hillsboro, Marion, and Canton.
“The corn is looking good, good quality and great yields, actually it might be the highest amount of corn we’ve ever taken,” Tippin said. “We’ve taken 2,033,000 bushels overall.”
Hillsboro’s elevator had 835,000 bushels, Marion had 722,000 bushels, and Canton had 475,000 bushels as of Thursday. He attributed the high yields to ideal weather.
“There weren’t a lot of days above 100 degrees, and we had good moisture,” he said.
Corn yields ranged from 90 to 185 bushels per acre in some areas but the average was around 130 bushels per acre, Tippin said.
He also noted the depressed corn prices.
“Prices are lower than in the past and they’re comparable to last year’s prices,” he said.
Farmers were still harvesting in the county’s northern reaches.
Stan Utting, general manager with Agro Producers, estimated they were about 90 percent finished as of Thursday.
“Farmers are still dumping corn,” Utting said. “But we’ve taken over a million bushels so far between Tampa, Durham, and Lincolnville.”
He said corn crop yields were a little above average but total acres planted were up, too.
“Some areas had about 100 bushel per acre,” he said, “but other areas closer to the reservoir and river bottoms had around 150 bushels per acre because of the better soil there.”
He confirmed crops did not have any significant problems with disease, fungus, weeds, or pests.