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Midwest farmers report sprouting corn, purple soybeans during harvest

Sprouting corn and colorful soybeans are showing up in some fields as combines roll across South Dakota, Iowa and Missouri.

Jeff Kloucek is a crop consultant and farmer in eastern South Dakota.

“There’s normal soybeans, green beans, purple beans, some that are almost black, yellow or a dark gold to brown,” he says.

Kloucek says late cercospora leaf blight due to wet conditions and a lack of fungcide applications during the dry growing season is part of the problem.

“I’ve never seen this extent of the purple seed stain. I’ve been in the industry for 20 years.”

In northwest Missouri, farmer Ryan Meyerkorth says excessive moisture has caused corn to sprout at the base of the ears.

“It’s not every ear for sure, but it’s definitely in every field. In some fields it’s 10 percent and others, 20 percent. It just depends. We’re finding it everywhere.”

He says the damaged corn is spitting out of the back of the combine. In southwest Iowa, Shane Schaaf says there are similar quality issues, but yields are strong.

“Right at the moment, the soybeans are yielding well,” says Schaaf. “I didn’t know, because some of the beans had started popping open, and I saw that and thought, oh no, but we’re growing good soybeans.”

The farmers say there’s not been major dockage or rejections at the elevator and they’re working as fast as possible to get fields harvested.

Hear Brownfield’s interview with Jeff Kloucek.

Hear Brownfield’s interview with Ryan Meyerkorth.

Hera Brownfield’s interview with Shane Schaaf.