Overall, the harvest here in the Southeast continues to be fantastic. 

That’s according to Marc Hutlet from Marc Hutlet Seeds near Ste. Anne. In talking with farmers from all over the Southeast, he notes the picture is somewhat varied but positive throughout. 

“It's kind of an odd year where there's still some canola out and guys are trying to finish their beans to get to their corn or they went into their corn because the ground was too wet to go get the beans. But in the overall picture in the immediate southeast area, a fantastic crop on all levels. So that's the best part.” 

Hutlet says only about 10 or 15 percent of the canola is left to be harvested. He notes a lot of the straw is still quite green and the yield is very good, both factors that slow down the combine.  

That said, he notes it should be done shortly. 

“By the end of this week here, canola will be done, the beans will be done, and a large portion of the corn will be done because the corn now has really dried down a lot. That’s fantastic.”  

Over the weekend, Hutlet says they did quite a bit oof testing and found that a lot of the corn was at 20 percent moisture which is excellent. He notes this means farmers won’t need to spend nearly as much money or time on drying. Yield is also very good.  

“Some guys that I spoke to on the weekend here are almost done. Very good yield, very good test weight, that's often a concern and it certainly isn't this year, and above average bushels. We've weighed several plots where it was 200 bushels or 180 or 160, depending on how much rain went through the area. The overall picture, it's very, very good." 

For context, Hutlet says an average plot will bring in 150 bushels or less. He notes the late frost this year was one of the factors that helped corn develop and filling out. He adds it is worth mentioning that silage corn was also outstanding this year. 

So, how are farmers feeling? 

Hutlet laughs, “I think they would take this year all the time. Our averages on a lot of the crops are brilliant and although we had a set back of a week and a half there where we couldn't do much harvesting, it's still a great crop and a lot of guys are having trouble finding storage for it. So, what does that tell you?” 

Even with the setback, Hutlet says the harvest is still on schedule or even ahead of schedule. “For the middle of October, we're doing pretty darn good.” 

 

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