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Big corn yields, full grain piles

A farmer in southeastern South Dakota says he harvested a decent corn crop this fall.

“I would say everybody was 180 to 200 plus bushels/acre pretty easy.”

Matt Bainbridge says corn is piled everywhere.

“It’s pretty wild. People are running out of places to pile it.”

Bainbridge says he delivered some corn to the elevator at harvest, but space is limited and he’s going to wait before selling more.

“As we were getting closer to $4, I was starting to get pretty tempted, and now we’ve kind of drifted back a little bit,” he says. “I think basis got a little out of hand, because everybody wants to do something with their piles before before they’re ready for any more grain to come in.”

He says most of the fall fieldwork has been completed in the area, with some farmers holding off on fertilizer applications until spring. Bainbridge says winter is coming.

“They’re not sure what will come the end of the week, but it should get colder and there’s a chance of snow.”

In its final weekly update of the year, USDA says there’s still some harvest happening in South Dakota. Corn harvest is 93 percent complete, sorghum harvest is 91 percent complete and sunflower harvest is 82 percent complete.