Harvest Corn In The Spring

Harvest corn in the spring COMBINES Accessories 11-6-32 If you've ever toyed with the idea of letting corn stand in the field over winter to let Mother Nature dry and store it, you'll get a lot of encouragement from Richard Hagen, Olivia, Minn., an 80-acre hobby farmer and ridge-till enthusiast. A year ago this fall, his corn crop was high in moisture. Instead of going through the hassle and expense of running it through a dryer, into storage and then back out again in the spring for delivery to the local elevator, he decided to let the crop stand in the field over winter and then harvest it, hopefully, in early April. Fortunately, last winter was one of the mildest ever in Minnesota and Hagen's corn crop "survived" with excellent standability and ear retentionùdespite the fact that he'd planted about one-third of the acreage to 90-day maturity seed. Thanks to an early spring, he was able to harvest the crop April 1 when temperatures were in the low 20's and there was just enough frost to carry the combine. Average yield was 133.3 bu. per acre. Moisture content was right at 15% and field loss averaged only 7%. Adding up the pluses and minuses, Hagen figures he netted an extra $30/A by letting the crop over-winter in the field. Here's how it penciled out: On the plus side, he saved $33.33/A in storage cost (he doesn't have grain storage facilities) figured at 25 cents/bu. and $24.66/A in drying costs (18 cents/bu.). On the minus side, since standing corn doesn't qualify for CCC loan, the opportunity cost of lost interest was $11.66 (133.3 bu. times $1.75 loan rate times 10% interest for 6 months). The 7% field loss translated to a cost of $16.45 (9.4 bu. at the $1.75/bu. loan rate). The final tally: $29.88 or right at $30/A net advantage for spring over fall harvested corn. Last spring, intending to repeat his spring harvesting experiment, Hagen planted two Keltgen hybrids especially noted for their excellent stalk quality and ear retention. However, with the unusually long growing season, his 1987 corn crop had field dried to 15% by Oct. 1 so he decided to go ahead with conventional fall harvesting and storage. "I'm convinced, nonetheless, that there's a real place for spring harvesting and I'm keepng it open as a viable alternative for future years," Hagen told FARM SHOW. Contact: Richard Hagen, Box 124, 01-ivia, Minn. (ph 612 523-1716).

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