The corn harvest is running late this year, and farmers say the yield will be down about 30 percent.
The annual corn harvest -- normally under way by this time of year -- is running about a month behind schedule for some farmers because of soggy conditions this spring that led to late planting.
And farmers who will be cutting corn in the next few weeks said this year's crop doesn't look to be a good one.
"We're just about ready to (cut), but it's still just a bit green," said Bill Manville, who has about 900 acres of corn on a farm north of Oskaloosa in Jefferson County.
He said that when his corn is cut, the yield will be down.
"We're down probably 30 percent," he said. "It's been too dry and too hot" this summer.
Likewise, Gerald Dwyer, who farms about 750 acres of corn a few miles southwest of Lawrence, estimated his yield would be down a third to a half from the normal yield.
"From what I've heard, the harvest is kind of on the bleak side," he said. "Everybody I've talked to has said it's down by about a third.
"I'd say mine is going to be like everybody else's " maybe a third or a half (down). That, with the prices being low, doesn't look very good," Dwyer said.
"It's a pretty poor year."
Rod Bigham, who has about 550 acres of corn east of Grantville in Jefferson County, said his yield also would be down when he begins cutting later in the week.
"Of course, the price isn't any good either," he said.
Jim Carpenter, owner of Eudora Feed and Grain, an elevator in Eudora, said only a handful of farmers have brought their crops in.
"From what we've seen so far, and we've seen so little, " they're down probably 30 percent, at least," he said.
"We hit that dry spell (this summer), and that hurt," said Jerry Neis, who has about 325 acres of corn south of Eudora.
Trudy Rice, Douglas County extension director, said it may be a bit early to tell how this year's crop will fare because many farmers in the area are running about a month behind.
"Because the planting was so late in the spring, our harvest will be very late this year," she said. "There's lots of corn out there that isn't dry and isn't ready to cut yet. So I'd say it's barely begun."
Normally, harvesting for corn, soybeans and sorghum grain lasts until November in Douglas County, she said, but it could be later this year.
-- Michael Dekker's phone message number is 832-7187. His e-mail address is mdekker@ljworld.com.
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.