The 2019 corn and soybean crops yielded better than expected given the difficult weather conditions we had during that year. The incredible rains throughout the spring led to the latest planting season on record.
Then, with the exception of the Dakotas and central Nebraska, fortune smiled on us. A period of outstanding growing weather in the middle of the summer helped us out. Fall was wet again, but a period of dry weather in mid- to late September put a finish on the crop. It was not as late a harvest as it could have been.
That September was a little warmer and dryer for the Western Corn Belt than it was in the Eastern Corn Belt, resulting in slightly lower harvest moisture on corn in the west.
The overall effect of the weather was a high degree of variability in all quality factors, with some deviations as high as we’ve ever seen, and despite the breaks, it was still one of the latest-maturing crops we’ve ever seen. All season, the crop good-to-excellent (GTE) ratings tracked below average. It looked as if we were headed for very high moisture levels at harvest and a 10% to 15% yield reduction.
In terms of quality, we had lower test weight and lower protein, though again, a little better in the west than in the east. Protein was low enough to make it more expensive to make up for it with soybean meal in livestock rations. Starch content was high, and the kernels were soft. This was a crop with low storability.
The problem was made worse by LP distribution problems in the fall, so a lot of corn couldn’t be dried properly. With the later harvest, we had to cool corn below freezing rather than drying. This corn was prone for spoilage, especially in steel bins subject to heating in sunlight and on farm where producers have no grain temperature monitoring.
Mycotoxin content, in particular vomitoxin, was high enough to issue a warning about feeding the corn to hogs, maybe diverting it to poultry or cattle, which are less susceptible to that toxin. That was particularly true for distiller’s grains, where mycotoxins concentrate in the ethanol production process.
The 2019 soybean crop also saw a lot of variability in terms of seed size and quality. The moderate September weather protected the crop from further deterioration, except in the wet areas in the north. Weed problems led to high levels of FM (foreign material). Oil levels were favorable, but protein was lower than average. Soy meal protein maxed out at around 47%.
We’ll be seeing a lot of blue eye mold on 2019 crops that haven’t moved yet. That grows at low relative humidity, 65% or under, so aeration doesn’t have much effect on it. Even dry corn in warm weather has an equilibrium humidity around 65%. Blue eye happens in summers where storage life has been used up earlier.
Reprinted from Grain Journal July/August 2020 Issue