Corn harvest going quickly in Vernon County

'A farmer in his John Deere combine makes the turn and heads back down the field trying to get in as much corn as he can before nightfall.

A wet spring and fields that had to be planted more than once in some cases didn't delay the harvest of Vernon County corn this year, according to local corn buying elevators. In fact, data from the United States Department of Agriculture indicates that the county's harvest may be ahead of some of the highest corn producing states.

The USDA says that about 27 percent of the nation's corn crop has been brought in so far. Some of the individual state numbers, of course, are higher; some are lower. Nebraska is on the low side of the harvest, only reporting 10 percent of their corn crop as harvested. While Illinois and Indiana are reporting 60 and 50 percent of their corn harvest complete at this time.

Here in Vernon County, the harvest is, "on the downhill slide," according to Greg Couch at the Producers Grain elevator in Bronaugh. Couch said that about 90 percent of the corn in his area of the county was in and it has "all been good and dry."

The harvest seems to be even further along in the northern part of the county. Roger Prough of Metz Grain said that he thought 99 percent of the grain was in and it looks like a good year. Prough said that some of the producers might be averaging 140 bushels to the acre.

Both men said that the bulk of the corn produced in their areas of the county leaves the county. Both mentioned that most of the corn from their elevators goes south to either southern Missouri or northern Arkansas for use as feed for that region's large and flourishing poultry industry.

Even with the corn that leaves the county, most of the area corn crop stays here. According to Pat Miller of the University of Missouri Extension office in the Vernon county courthouse, 80 percent of the corn grown in the area stays here. A good portion of it bypasses the elevators and is either stored on farm and sold later or sold directly to local buyers such as Murphy Family Farm Inc., Miller said.

Out at the Producer's Grain elevator in Walker, Jamie Sullivan said things are going "great." Sullivan said that with about 90 percent of the corn brought in that, "we've had a good harvest." Sullivan said that they have a new broker who has a lot of good contacts. Corn from the Walker elevator is going to Arkansas, southern Missouri, Harrisonville, Kansas City and other places, "we have corn going everywhere," she said.

Sullivan also said that some soy beans are beginning to come in, but it's nothing like years past when both crops came in simultaneously. We'd do two trucks of corn and then two beans she said, then two more corn and three beans. She said that concentrating on just the corn has made this year's harvest a little easier so far. But the beans aren't far behind. There are a lot of them planted in the county; so the harvest will continue, only the grain will change.