November 5, 2009

 
The harvest of Manitoba's soy crop has been progressing, albeit at a slow pace, while the province's corn harvest was just starting to gear up, according to industry representatives.

 

"I would describe the harvest of soy in Manitoba as 'slowly poking along' with some producers delaying the harvest in hopes of removing green seed as well as allowing for the natural drying down of the crop," said Brent Reid, a farm production advisor with the Manitoba Department of Agriculture.

 

As for Manitoba's soy crop, there were producers who had more than 50 percent of their crop combined while there were others that still had to begin those operations, Reid said.

 

He said producers were reporting moisture content in their soy of 18 percent to over 20 percent, which is extremely high.

 

"Producers have unfortunately had to begin harvesting those soy given the time of the year," Reid said. "They decided to deal with the moisture content in the grain bins rather than on the field."

 

He noted soy in Manitoba also got a later start in seeding than some producers would have liked, with issues during the growing season also causing some maturity delays.

 

Some of the early maturing varieties of soy, however, did extremely well, while producers with the longer maturing varieties were having to deal with crop insurance, Reid said.

 

Yields for the soy that have been harvested were ranging from 22 to 45 bushels an acre, with the few producers managing the 45 bushels pleasantly surprised with the results, Reid said.

 

Normally, by this time of the year, soy in Manitoba would have all been in the bin, Reid said.

 

Corn producers in Manitoba, meanwhile, were just starting to consider getting the combines rolling, Theresa Bergsma, an official with the Manitoba Corn Producers Association, said.

 

"Those producers have also been waiting for the corn crops to dry down naturally, as opposed to using the grain dryers," she said. "However, given the lateness of the season, the producers have started to push forward with harvest operations where possible."

 

Bergsma said producers have decided to take their chances with the high moisture content in the corn rather than letting the corn stay on the fields over the winter.

 

"I would estimate that less than 5 percent of the province's grain corn crop has been harvested so far," she said.

 

Bergsma said producers will try to harvest the fields in which the corn crop is looking extremely good, first.

 

There are corn fields in the province in which mould will be a big issue.

 

"Depending on how infected the corn plant is with mould will determine whether the crop is written off by crop insurance adjusters or whether there is still an opportunity to sell the mould-infected corn," she said.

 

Bergsma said during a normal growing season, producers would have been finishing off the harvest of the province's corn crop by the end of October.

 

Both Reid and Bergsma said it was still a bit early to determine how much acreage producers are planning to give the two crops next spring, with price likely to be the deciding factor.