Corn harvest is ramping up across Kansas and while every field will be different, reports from across the state range from better than expected to a great crop. Prices, however, are just ugly. As the calendar marches toward October, soybean harvest and wheat planting will make already crowded schedules even busier.
In Finney County, Kyle Deaver had started shelling dryland corn. Irrigated fields are still ripening but soybeans are getting close to being harvest ready. Rain showers were a welcome benefit last week that will help with wheat planting.
Deaver believes the corn crop in his area will have a solid, average year, but it’s “a lower price than I’d like to see,” he says. Corn prices have been trending down since topping $8 a bushel in 2022, and they’ve fallen about 60 cents a bushel since the beginning of the year. It’s now hovering just above $4 as harvest rolls though Kansas.
On the eastern side of the state, Ottawa Coop’s Waverly location manager Mike Beying said a rain would still help soybeans in the field and he’d welcome a slowdown in corn harvest to free up some more storage.
“Space is tight,” he says. “When the corn is coming, it’s coming fast.”
Beying says his location has received corn from four counties so far, and some of those loads were around 250 bushels per acre, significantly above the usual target of 130 to 140 bushels per acre for the area.
“We’ll be above that average in a lot of places,” Beying says. “It just depends on where the rain happened to fall.”
The rain didn’t fall on the fields of Marion County farmer Nick Peters. He reported there was no measurable rain in his area from July 3 to Aug. 13. For the second straight year, a lack of moisture meant the corn died early and Peters finished up harvest earlier than usual.
“If there had been any type of moisture then it could have really made a difference,” he says. “It was better than last year. It wasn’t our best crop, but it was better than we thought it was going to be. Considering all the factors, we’re happy.”
Peters says he’s staying busy with spraying and waiting for soybeans to dry down for harvest. He’s hopeful for some moisture to help with wheat drilling and to give a boost to his double crop beans.
“Prices are a little rough right now,” Peters says. “Overall, we definitely could be worse off. We’ll survive and advance.”
The eternal optimism of farmers never ceases to amaze me. A better than expected harvest after six weeks of no rain isn’t easy to deal with. And the excitement from a bumper crop is still dampened by low prices. It’s a testament to the faith growers have in the weather, markets and their own ability to look beyond today’s results and believe tomorrow’s will be better. Whether corn harvest is just starting or already wrapped up, one thing’s for certain. There’s always next year.
“Insight” is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.
