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Too much grain: a good problem to have
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This page is sponsored by Atlantic Tractor
11 locations to serve all your agricultural needs! Click on the logo to visit their web-site. |
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Too much grain: a good problem to have
11.23.04
By LINDA SIEMON
This year soybeans have hit a record high in production and corn is at a near record high.
John Cassidy, vice president of grain operations at Perdue, said they have had so many soybeans this year that they are storing some of their supply on the ground for the second time ever — a risky move Cassidy said is one they were forced to make.
It’s comparable to the grain supply the company had in 2000 and 2001. During those years Perdue had more than seven million bushels of corn stored on the ground and 500,000 bushels of soybeans. This year they are storing 600,000 bushels of soybeans on the ground at their Salisbury facility and there are a total of four million bushels of corn on the ground with 200,000 bushels on the ground at the Lothian facility.
“I think a few people said back in 2000 and ’01 that it was the mother of all crops and we’d never see another one,” Cassidy said, adding that this year farmers have duplicated that success. “I think it’s an indication of how sophisticated the Maryland, Delaware and Virginia farmers have become,” he said.
“To put soybeans on the ground, you think about it a lot before you do it,” Cassidy said. “We put it on asphalt, whereas corn we put on the ground as well as asphalt. Corn, because it has a protective outer shell, it’s more resistant to moisture. We have to take every precaution we can to prevent moisture seeping into the soybeans.
“We have put corn on the ground in all of the last five harvest years. This is only the second time we’ve done it in soybeans,” Cassidy said.
For soybeans, Perdue puts a ring around them using Jersey walls and pulls a tarp wrapping around the walls making it as water tight as possible. Soybean piles also get temperature cables so that the temperature can be monitored. If the temperature rises at all, an indication that moisture has gotten in and is beginning to transform the soybeans, the beans are immediately transported to another location.
“You’re always trying to manipulate the size of the crop and when it’s going to come so you can manipulate the space,” he said, adding that they also have to store wheat and barley. Wheat is stored long term and is harvested in July and August. The wheat is bought by Pennsylvania customers all year long.
Since the chicken industry uses more corn than soybeans for feed, Cassidy said he is exporting as many beans as possible, transporting them to Chesapeake, Va., where they are loaded onto barges and sold to China, Caribbean countries, Morroco, Egypt and Italy.
This year’s over abundance of corn and soybeans is due largely to favorable weather conditions and farmers planting more acres of corn.
The United States Department of Agriculture reports the corn yield in Maryland had a 23.5 percent increase this year from last year with 123 bushels per acre last year and an estimated 152 bushels per acre this year. In Delaware, last year’s yield was 123 bushels per acre and reaches 144 bushels per acre this year, a 17 percent increase. Virginia had an estimated 115 bushels per acre last year and this year has 147 bushels per acre, a 28 percent increase.
This year’s national yield for soybeans is 42.6 bushels per acre compared to last year’s 33.9 bushels per acre, a 25 percent increase. Maryland and Delaware are expected to have an estimated yield in soybeans of 42 bushels per acre this year. Last year Maryland had 37 bushels of soybeans per acre and Delaware had 36 bushels per acre.