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Warm weather boosts harvest

Photo by Jody Isaackson Fran Verly, Marshall, and son Allan, stopped to augur corn into one of their grain bins Monday afternoon during harvest.

MARSHALL — Farmers around the area are making tracks to beat the next big rain in getting out the corn. However, lower commodity prices are forcing some of them to store the crop for now.

“This is a better corn harvest than I’ve anticipated,” Fran Verly said Monday. With help from his son, Allan, Verly was unloading corn into their bin in rural Marshall. Fran Verly had been running the John Deere combine while his son drives tractor pulling a grain cart. They both stopped in the yard to augur their loads into a grain bin.

“We’ve really been blessed with the weather and the dry-down that we’ve had this last week to 10 days. It’s just awesome getting these warmer temperatures, some breeze, and the low humidity that we’ve been getting in the afternoons. They have really been helping field-dry the corn. It’s a blessing.”

The Verlys have been running at 225-230 per bushel field averages with 17-18 percent moisture. The Verlys market most of their corn at the ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) corn plant in Marshall, he said. ADM still had soybeans stockpiled along North Seventh Street in Marshall when they start receiving corn.

“We just started hauling our new crop in today,” Fran Verly said, missing the long lines from about a week ago. “We combined 30 loads today. I’m thinking we’ll be done in two weeks with the corn harvest. We finished up beans about a week ago.”

While the Verlys are getting good moisture content, there were other farmers who are bringing in wetter corn, CHS Inc. General Manager Kent Mulder said Monday. CHS is an agriculture Co-op in Marshall

“Farmers are moving from soybeans right into corn,” Mulder said. “It looks a little bit wetter. We may have to dry some of the corn this fall.”

The bean harvest was in good shape, Mulder said. The yields were good and the quality was very good, he said.

“We’re all feeling like the commodity prices are lower than we would like to see them,” Mulder said. “Generally, the farmers are storing the corn and waiting for higher prices. There’s not much demand for exporting corn at this time, but more of a demand for soybeans.”

Fran Verly and his family are putting in long days during harvest just like most farmers, trying to race the weather to get their crops in. They sometimes even work on Sundays, as they did this past Sunday, he said.

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