Will early harvesting be beneficial? Grain harvest considerations

Sep 25, 2018 at 07:24 AM CST
In a perfect world as we plan for corn and soybean grain harvest, weather provides favorable drying conditions in the field, lodging is non-existent and there are no worries regarding stalk quality deterioration so harvest can be planned and executed without any, or very minimal, grain drying expense. Hey, as long as it’s a perfect world, we might as well throw in that grain prices are so favorable there is no need to plan for grain storage because we can sell everything right at harvest. The reality is that our current markets dictate some grain storage as part of a marketing strategy and grain storage means managing grain moisture. In addition, weather often does not cooperate so field dry down is slow or prolonged, wet conditions prevent timely harvest, stalk quality deteriorates, lodging occurs and all these factors add up to field harvest loss.

Sep 25, 2018 at 07:24 AM CST

In a perfect world as we plan for corn and soybean grain harvest, weather provides favorable drying conditions in the field, lodging is non-existent and there are no worries regarding stalk quality deterioration so harvest can be planned and executed without any, or very minimal, grain drying expense.

Hey, as long as it’s a perfect world, we might as well throw in that grain prices are so favorable there is no need to plan for grain storage because we can sell everything right at harvest.

The reality is that our current markets dictate some grain storage as part of a marketing strategy and grain storage means managing grain moisture. In addition, weather often does not cooperate so field dry down is slow or prolonged, wet conditions prevent timely harvest, stalk quality deteriorates, lodging occurs and all these factors add up to field harvest loss.