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No Joke - Iowa farmers finish the harvest on April 1

garn

Well-known member
http://www.kcci.com/news/23031119/detail.html

High temp at the Des Moines airport yesterday was 86.

It may sound like an April Fool's Day joke, but an Adair farmer was finally able to harvest last fall's corn crop on April 1.

"It just blows your mind," said farmer Andrew Lehman. "Am I really getting this out to combine corn in April?"

He was out in the field on a day when temperatures hit 82 degrees, a long-deserved reward after Iowa's miserable winter.

"You couldn't ask for a nicer day," said Lehman.

Conditions last fall made it impossible for him to harvest his crop.

"The corn being so wet, (with a) wet fall, you couldn't get in the field," he said.

Farmers delayed by rain were sick when December's blizzard dumped feet of snow of fields that were still full of corn.

"You go out and look at it and the snow drifts were this deep in some of it and you're like, there is just no way you're getting through that with a combine," he said.

But under all that snow, there was plenty of corn.

"There was a lot of fields of corn and the farther south you went, the more corn you saw," said farmer Dean Hansen.

Millions of stalks spent an extra six months in the elements, and hundreds of antsy farmers spent the winter waiting for nice weather that finally arrived.

"There's mudholes and different things, but rain is coming in tomorrow, so we're going to try to get what we can now," Hansen said.

"The corn actually stood pretty good," Lehman said. "Down in this bottom, around these trees, the deer really played havoc on it."

All things considered, the harvest that wouldn't end didn't turn out bad. Wagons were filled and farmers were relieved.

"It's a heck of a sigh of relief to have it done," Lehman said.

He said planting season is just 15 days away.

"Finishing up in April and then starting spring planting is just unreal," he said.
 

burnt

Well-known member
Quite a bit of corn coming off around here as well. An unusually open winter for Ontario resulted in little snow so the corn stood well and dried down quickly this spring with very warm temperatures for March.

So, with the corn coming off at 14 -15 % moisture and the bushel weight coming up a few pounds, the corn that was mush at harvest last fall is actually making grade 4 and is marketable at that.

Big economic difference for those who waited until now but nobody could have predicted a friendly winter like we had either.
 

per

Well-known member
No corn grown here but there have been cereals harvested in the spring before. Is !5% dry for corn?
 

burnt

Well-known member
per said:
No corn grown here but there have been cereals harvested in the spring before. Is !5% dry for corn?

It is considered dry at either 15 or 15.5, I don't remember for sure since I don't dry corn any more.
 

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