Harvest moves into high gear in Floyd County
A 12-row cornhead gobbles up wide swaths of a cornfield north of Rockford Thursday morning as area harvest kicks into high gear. Press photo by Bob Steenson
Chad LaCoste looks over the field Thursday morning as grain cart driver Greg Engels transfers corn from the grain cart to LaCoste's truck. Press photo by Bob Steenson
Dan and Jason Engels operate the combines harvesting several hundred acres in one of Bob Engels' fields Thursday morning. This John Deere combine with a 16-row corn head ends a strip of the field with a full bin. Press photo by Bob Steenson
A combine with a full grain bin moves into position to unload Thursday morning in a Bob Engels field north of Rockford. Press photo by Bob Steenson
Greg Engels, driving the grain cart, keeps busy Thursday morning transporting corn from two combines, operated by Dan and Jason Engels, on several hundred acres farmed by Bob Engels north of Rockford. Press photo by Bob Steenson
By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com
The fall harvest shifted into high gear this week as the corn maturity level was 10 days ahead of the state average and almost three weeks ahead of where it was last year.
This is only the second time since 2000 that at least one-quarter of the corn for grain crop was harvested by Oct. 4, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its weekly crop progress and condition report.
Chad LaCoste, running a grain truck while a field farmed by Bob Engels was harvested about 9 miles north of Rockford Thursday morning, said it was “going pretty good.”
“The corn’s dry. The moisture’s good. The moisture coming out of the field is anywhere from 14 to probably 20% moisture, 56- to 57-pound test weight corn,” LaCoste said. “It’s a good harvest.”
Dan and Jason Engels were running the combines in the several-hundred-acre field, keeping Greg Engels busy running the grain cart, hauling the corn from the combines to the truck LaCoste was driving.
“Give credit to Greg,” LeCoste said. “It’s really important to have a good grain cart driver.”
At the beginning of the week the corn in the north central district that includes Floyd County was 94% mature, and 18% of the crop had been harvested, according to the USDA report. That percentage will like have risen considerably by next week’s report.
Almost all the soybeans were dropping leaves and 60% of the crop had been harvested at the beginning of this week, the report said.
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