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Poor wheat quality is costly

Quality issues are hitting wheat farmers hard in the pocketbook.  DuPont Pioneer Account Manager Kurt Marvel says Ohio, Indiana and Illinois are experiencing very extreme crop conditions.

“There were some pretty good pictures out on Twitter in some different places of combines cutting ruts, trying to harvest the crop, following it with a tillage tool trying level it off, and then still trying to sow soybeans after the fact.”

He tells Brownfield, vomitoxin levels, or wheat fungus, are very high in wet areas.   “This past week there was a story of a fellow taking in a load of wheat that he had for $5.50 a bushel, and it looked like he was going to net about 50 cents a bushel after discounts.”  Vomitoxin is toxic to humans and animals, and farmers are discounted if quantities pass certain thresholds.

Marvel says even if wheat yields are tremendous, it may not be marketable if quality is poor enough.  He says farmers need to contact their crop insurance agent if they find extremely high vomitoxin levels when evaluating their crops.

AUDIO: Interview with Kurt Marvel (6:59 mp3):