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Early corn yields impress central Missouri farmer

A farmer in central Missouri says the early planted corn harvested over the weekend has been phenomenal.

Robert Alpers tells Brownfield corn has been around 16 percent moisture, so there wasn’t a need to dry it.

“The field that we took out was running about the 16 percent moisture average so we didn’t have to dry it. That was nice. And I’m going to say 25 bushel above our actual production history. We’re happy. The corn’s drying down fast.”

He says the last two weeks of extreme heat could hurt some stalk quality, and plans to resume harvest after cleaning out some grain bins to store the crop.

“Everything’s standing right now, but we want to probably stay after it. I think the beans, especially if they were later beans, I know they’ve taken a hit and they’re going to be either BB’s or they’ve aborted a lot of the pods.”

The USDA says 21 percent of Missouri’s soybeans are dropping leaves, with conditions rated 55 percent good to excellent. Nearly half of Missouri’s corn crop is mature, with 14 percent of the state’s corn harvested.