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Harvest Update
Dwight Koops, Regional Vice President
Fall harvest lingers on across the High Plains. October and November
have proven to be much wetter than normal, with many days of no sunshine.
Almost every bushel of corn and grain sorghum has been run through a grain
drier at the elevators. Mud has kept combines out of fields for disparaging
numbers of days in a row. It also appears that the weather pattern will
continue through early December. This does not bode well for the remainder
of milo harvest, as the crop is deteriorating in the field, and standability
has become a real issue (Figure 1).
Some fields have almost gone flat, while other varieties seem to be hanging in
there quite well. Some of the fields will not get harvested until the ground freezes.
Grain sorghum yields have been average to above average so far. I expect
that the remaining crop will struggle to make average yields, and with
lower test weights. It looks like a year where harvest will not wrap up
until January or February.
The cotton crop has suffered tremendously from all the wet weather. The
Texas panhandle has a very good crop, but there are areas where the majority
of cotton remains in the field due to wet weather. Some of these fields
have had snow on them three times already. Needless to say, producers
are nervous.
The cotton crop in southwest Kansas looks bleak
(Figure 2). The majority
of fields were not quite mature when the killing frost hit, and most of
the upper bolls will not open. The wet weather is taking its toll here
as well. Very little cotton was stripped in November, and it is likely
that some fields may never get stripped. When strippers do get a chance
to get rolling, we expect that yield and quality will be way down.
As good as the weather was for growing an outstanding corn crop, it was
devastating to the cotton in southwest Kansas.
Sunflower yields have been very good across dryland and irrigated ground.
The oil content though has been below expectations, and producers are
not getting top price for flowers due to this. Yields may make up for
the oil content in most cases.
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