“It’s excellent,” says Paul Hetland, Mt. Vernon, S.D., of the quality of the corn he’s harvesting this week. Hetland farm in south central South Dakota. He says their corn, which had some hail damage, is 17-19% moisture and weighs 56-58 pounds per bushel. Yields are ranging from 100-160 bushels per acre, depending on the hail damage. He expects fields that didn’t get hailed on to run 175+ bushels per acre. He says he hasn’t noticed any mold in the corn.
“Exceptionally bad” is how John Seffrood, Summit, S.D., describes his corn. His operates a dairy in northeast South Dakota on the top of the Coteau Hills. He doesn’t plan on putting up any high moisture corn this year because the mold will only get worse while in a storage bag. He has some feed left over from last year, but may have to buy corn, too. He’ll test everything he buys, including distillers grains, for mold. “This problem could drag on,” he says.
“Pretty minimal…nothing unfit to feed so far,” is how Dan Qual, Lisbon, N.D., describes mold levels in his corn. He’s also a milk producer. He says he’s heard rumors of some fields that won’t be harvested because of high mold levels.
Jeff Enger, Marion, N.D., reports good corn quality. Fields they are combining now are 18-20% moisture with 53-54 pound test weight.
“We’d be real happy with that,” says Kevin Skunes, Arthur, N.D., who plans to start harvesting corn this week. He optimistic that mold won’t create a marketing problem. Few of the samples NDSU tested recently contained the kind of molds that produce mycotoxins.
Given the cool summer and fall, the situation could be a lot worse. Several of these producers say the warm, dry November weather has been a “blessing.”