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Rain-free harvest continues for Illinois farmer

A south central Illinois farmer has avoided harvest delays so far, but high moisture corn may press the pause button soon.

Darren Hiestand of Alma tells Brownfield they’ve been harvesting corn and soybeans for 16 days straight and while there is no rain in the forecast, they might still hit a delay.

“The problem we are having right now is trying to get this corn to dry down. These cool days and cool nights aren’t drying it down for us, so after today we may be on pause because all of our drying bins are full.”

The corn being harvested today is 21% moisture, but he says the next field ready to harvest is closer to 27%.

And while the dry weather has been great for harvest, the winter wheat they have planted could use a rain.

“We planted some at the end of September on some silage ground and it is up, you can actually row it right now but some of the other stuff that was planted a little later, it’s not there yet and it does need rain.”

He says so far corn and soybean yields have both been a little better than average.