Sweet corn harvest picking up

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- Well over a week into the sweet corn pack, Del Monte Corp. plant manager Jim Knetsch said yields are starting to improve.

Sweet corn was planted a little later than usual due to the wet spring. Unusually warm temperatures brought the corn to ripeness quickly, despite a long dry period. Then rain fell in torrents.

"It was very dry. We went 35 days without rain until late July when we got six inches in three days," Knetsch said. "We had 35 days of temperatures at 90 degrees or above. We usually have five or six."

The Del Monte corn pack in Sleepy Eye began Aug. 6. The plant has about 400 employees working 21 hours per day. The remaining three hours of the day are spent sanitizing the plant.

Sweet corn yields are a little below average with some uneven stands.

"The heat really hurt while it was pollinating," Knetsch said. "It's starting to pick up as we get to more of our main line varieties. The rain we got Wednesday helped it even more."

Knetsch said the pea pack was surprisingly good considering the unusually hot and dry weather. Yields were slightly below average. The pea pack was complete a little earlier than normal due to the heat.

Brown County Extension Agent Wayne Schoper said this year is no bumper crop but corn has improved "tremendously" since the late July rain. Yields are average to slightly below average at 125-140 bushels per acre, with somewhat lower yields in lighter soils.

Schoper said soybeans have perked up since the rain several weeks ago. Yields are in the high 30s to mid-40s.

More rain is needed.

"We need another one to one and one-half-inch of rain to finish off," Schoper said. "Some fields pollinated during the heat. A few kernels were missed. There are big knobs at the end of some ears. Some cobs are barren on top. There was moisture stress, but we'd be in a lot worse shape if not for the rain at the end of July."

Wheat yields are 60-80 bushels and oats are 80-85 bushels, according to Schoper.

Prices for good quality straw are $2.50 to $3 per bale, about double last year's.

Schoper suggested farmers get their alfalfa up by Sept. 1 so it can establish itself for winter. High quality dairy alfalfa prices with a heat value of 150 or more are at $110-$130 per ton, up from $80 a ton a year ago.

"Prices are really starting to take off," Schoper said. "The sky is the limit. Dairy farmers should get on top of the situation, get located and locked in on a price."

He anticipated chopping silage by Labor Day weekend, depending upon weather the rest of the month.