According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report released Nov. 10, U.S. corn production this year will be record-breaking. Total production is estimated at 14.4 billion bushels or more than 360 million metric tons, with yield estimates at 173.4 bushels per acre or almost 11 tons per hectare. Well into harvest, farmers are generally finding these estimates to be accurate and overall corn quality to be good.
Quality Good With Some Local Variations Due to Weather
In much of the U.S. Corn Belt, favorable growing conditions throughout the season have led to strong yields and generally good quality. Some wet fall weather initially delayed harvest in some areas, but the United States overall has now caught up to the five year average.
“Test weights have been running anywhere from 56 to 59 pounds per bushel (72 to 76 kilograms per hectoliter),” said Terry Vinduska, a farmer in Kansas. “For us, that’s average to slightly better than normal. We did lose a little bit of kernel depth because of a drought on a couple of fields in spots but, all in all, it’s a very good, high quality harvest.”
In a few areas that had more wet, cloudy weather, test weights were slightly lower compared to last year.
“The plants had plenty of moisture, but they weren’t quite photosynthesizing enough to really put the nutrients into the kernel to make it as dense as what it was last year,” Illinois farmer Paul Jeschke said. “I think the really wet late season weather is possibly what the cause of our lighter test weights have been.”
Using Mechanical Drying for Storage in Some Areas
Many farmers have already begun drying their corn in preparation for storage. This is a crucial step to preserving the quality before it goes to storage and eventually is shipped.
“In Ohio, the corn wasn’t dry enough at the end of the growing season to put it straight in the bin. So we used a mechanical dryer,” said Ohio farmer John Linder. “One of the challenges to maintaining high quality in this type of drying system is using the proper temperatures to dry the corn, so we monitor it very closely as we dry the corn.”
The U.S. corn harvest is proving to be a record crop with good quality overall.
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