The corn harvest will go out with a whimper.
“It looks like we’re going to average 25 to 30 bushels an acre,” said Marvin Lynch, manager of the Piqua Farmers Cooperative. “I’ve heard of everything from one bushel to 100,” with not many on the upper end.
This year’s harvest is a repeat of 2011’s, although the demographics are reversed.
“Last year the north part of our (service) area had better corn, this year it’s in the south,” said Lynch, noting the spotty nature of what rain that did fall the past 2½ months.
It’s easy to understand why corn failed to produce more than a fraction of what farmers expect in today’s agricultural environment.
During April, May and June, when fall crops are planted and are expected to attain most of their maturity, rainfall normally totals about 15 inches in the Iola area. This year, 6.79 inches fell, including nothing of consequence after the middle of June.
Meanwhile, temperatures rose to or above 100 degrees 11 times in late June and July. When the mercury didn’t hit triple digits, it usually topped out just a degree or two under. That kind of heat usually occurs in late July and August.
The result was corn having difficulty pollinating — the optimum temperature for that is 86 degrees — and ear development was stymied by the ongoing drought and heat.
“We usually take in a million to 1.2 million bushels of corn,” Lynch observed. “Right now (Thursday afternoon) we have 400,000 and I doubt if we get more than 50,000 bushels more.”
Last year’s intake was 440,000 bushels.
While bottom-line economics are adversely affected by the short harvest, farmers’ lifeline, crop insurance, also takes a hit.
Lynch explained that insurance payments are figured on several years’ average yield, with best and worst years thrown out. With two straight years of depressed harvest, that means insurance payments will be hurt by having one extremely bad year’s yield in the mix.
“Besides,” he added, “insurance basically just pays for input costs, and often not all of that.”
Farmers have domestic concerns the same as everyone else and when the source of their livelihood doesn’t turn a profit, it’s a struggle to make ends meet.
Saving grace is that farmers today have experienced hard times before and have taken steps to weather a bad year.
