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A slower end to harvest expected in central SD

A farmer in central South Dakota says corn and sunflower harvest have been on hold due to the wet weather and a lack of grain storage.

Chuck Todd from Onida tells Brownfield local grain elevators and on-farm grain bins have filled up quickly.

“Every bin will be full and there’s a lot of storage around here. There will be no leftover storage, they’ll be packed full,” he says. “There are a few bags in fields I’ve noticed. I’ve used grain bags before, but it’s a lot of work and I’d rather not use those. We’ll fill up all of our on-farm grain bins before moving the crop.”

Todd says farmers are holding onto the corn for better prices, but there’s also some old crop grain in storage.

“Because the price dropped so far, everyone left stuff in grain bins.”

He says it’s been a struggle to get corn and sunflowers dry enough to deliver to the elevator because of the recent rain and snow.

“Sunflowers will dry down, they can dry down with air and we have to be more careful if they run through the dryer, because of the fire dangers with oilseeds,” he says. “In this part of the country, there aren’t a lot of dryers on farms and only a few bigger elevators have dryers.”

Todd says sunflower harvest is on hold until moisture gets to 10% and the corn moisture ranges from 18 to 20%. He says he’s expecting harvest to continue at least another month.