Energy costs are high, so a simple solution would be to cash in on Mother Nature’s free drying services this fall. Unfortunately harvest decisions are rarely simple. Consider these factors when weighing your drying decisions.
FACTOR 1: SHRINKAGE
Shrinkage can work for or against you, depending on your end user, says Ron Heiniger, North Carolina State Extension specialist.
“Grain buying stations calculate the shrink (difference between the grain moisture and 15.5%) and deduct it from the weight recorded at the scale,” he says. “Corn growers should always try to sell grain at or above 15.5% to avoid losing weight to shrinkage resulting in economic loss.”
FACTOR 2: COST OF DRYING
“Farmers are seeing propane and natural gas costs two to three times higher than normal,” Heiniger says. “So, farmers are thinking about leaving corn in the field to dry, but Mother Nature can’t always be trusted.”
Consider the numbers. If propane prices are $3.20 per gallon this winter and the cost of electricity at the farm is 16¢, it will cost around 7¢ per point of moisture removed per bushel of grain. If you dry down 26% moisture corn to 16% moisture, you’ll hit 70¢ per bushel. If you have 100,000 bu. of grain to dry, your total drying costs would be $70,000.
FACTOR 3: FIELD LOSS
Ultimately, Heiniger says, field loss is the most important factor in determining your harvest plan. Field losses in-clude ear losses from lodging or ear drop, combine thrashing loss, losses due to ear rot and mycotoxins and de-creases in kernel weight.
“My advice is to start scouting fields before they get to black layer, so you know the health of the stalks and cobs,” he says. “Make a list of your fields with notes to help you decide the harvest order.”
Read More: Farm Journal Test Plots: A Phantom Lurks in Your Corn Fields
FACTOR 4: HARVEST CAPACITY
Dig out your records from the past five years and look at how many days it took you to harvest your crops from start to finish, suggests Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist.
Then, calculate your daily capacity. “If you can harvest 160 acres a day but you can only handle 80 acres of grain, your capacity is 80 acres,” Ferrie says. “That might have been OK when you farmed 1,500 acres, meaning you had 20 days to harvest. But now, say you’re farming 4,000 acres. You might need 50 days to get harvest done, and that’s 50 days without weather delays or equipment breaking down.”
Harvest capacity is a big time-related challenge farmers face, Ferrie says.
“When farmers had fewer acres, they could let corn dry down in the field and get serious about harvest when it reached 15% moisture,” he says. “You can’t afford to do that with thousands of acres.”
