Special Report

Farmer harvests earlier for higher profits

Gary Porter, Northern Missouri  Farmer and Treasurer of the Missouri Corn Growers Merchandising Council at Ag Connect 2013Making the most of your farm equipment is something Missouri farmer Gary Porter emphasized with growers at the 2013 Ag Connect Expo in Kansas City.

Porter has a corn, soybean and Angus cattle operation in Mercer County, in north Central Missouri. He urged farmers to maximize the use of their equipment.  He tells Brownfield Ag News, “I mean, that planter sits in the shed nine months out of the year. You only use it three. You need to use that planter when it’s time to run. It needs to be ready and it needs to be going.”

Porter also advocates combining early and selling early, saying both have paid off for his family farm.  He says, “We can pocket 88-cents a bushel more by selling September 1st corn than by waiting until mid-October. By also doing that, we feel like we get a better yield, our corn is standing up stronger and straighter when it’s early and green like that.

Porter says field conditions are typically better during an early harvest, plus, they get done sooner, “We used to not start until October and now we’re starting the first of September. We’re getting a thousand of acres of crops harvest before we normally would have started.”  Porter also advocates knowing your farming operation’s costs and goals, then, marketing to meet those goals. 

Porter was a featured speaker at one of Brownfield’s Managing for Profit sessions at AG Connect Expo in Kansas City.  Porter is Treasurer of the Missouri Corn Merchandising Council.

AUDIO: Gary Porter (7:00 mp3)

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