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Missouri farmer ready to get back in field

Farmers in the Corn Belt are dealing with delayed harvests because of heavy rains but in some areas, that rain is clearing up. Central Missouri farmer Jay Schutte – says he had 80 percent of his corn harvested and none of his beans out before that week of rain came along.  Now, they’re just waiting for the ground to dry enough to get in the fields,  “We could be done with corn in about two days which I think is pretty typical in this area for most of the producers. I think you get up closer to the Iowa border, there’s not a lot of corn harvested yet. They certainly are welcoming the sunshine.”

He says the weather delays WILL affect crop rotations, “I know we’re talking about not planting any wheat this year just because, you know, we don’t think the ground will be dry enough for us to till the dirt so that we can even sow wheat seed. That’s going to change things for us definitely.’

Schutte tells Brownfield they are grateful to the Missouri department of agriculture and the department of transportation for waiving weight limits on roadways, “I know it’s a little late for the guys down in the southern part of the state, down in the Bootheel and so forth, they’re already done. But, of course, we’ve got a lot of crop to go through here up north and winter WILL be here soon, so we need to be getting things done.”

Like most farmers, Schutte’s looking at the best yields for both corn and soybeans he’s had in a while. He tells Brownfield that, luckily, they did some forward contracting on corn and soybeans, “As large as the crop was we should have forward-contracted more. So, we are protected somewhat on price. If you look out into the futures market there is going to be better pricing opportunities in the future and we’re certainly looking at those.”

Schutte is on the board of directors of the Missouri Corn Growers Association and the Missouri Corn Merchandising Council.