Crop Watcher 10/02/09

Todd Easton Coles County October 2 2009: The waiting game lingers on here in Coles County as corn and soybean crops seem to be approaching harvestability very slowly. Farmers quickly ran out of April planted corn to harvest if they even had any and still found it to be over 20 percent moisture over the last week in September. Abnormally high amounts of damage (10%-20%) from disease made for an ugly surprise for most producers who had the early corn. May planted corn is far from ready for harvest as I could not help but try some of my May 11 corn and found it to be a very wet 34% and the later May early June fields look much worse. As for the soybeans ripe fields seem to be few and far apart so far farmers are cutting them as fast as they become ready. Yields for the beans are so far in the 50’s and 60’s much better than many were thinking they would be but I will be surprised if the later beans can sustain these levels. Until next week all we can do is have patience and clear our November calendars.