With the perfect harvesting weather perhaps coming to an end this weekend due to Saturday’s (oct 18th) forecast of substantial rain, the Vermilion County Farm Bureau’s Tom Fricke says a break just might be what everyone needs. All the extreme dryness is causing a dust/vision problem that’s higher than normal, not to mention dryness that’s causing the soybeans to perhaps be a little on the small side at times. And the main thing to remember is that despite the great start, there’s a lot more to do.
AUDIO: There is a lot of dust out there. And a lot of guys have made the comment that the soybeans are coming in really dry this year. So a little rain will do two things. It’ll help get the moisture back into the soybeans, to where they’re at a more reasonable level; and it’ll also give the guys that have been working hard for a long time a break. I would say we’re getting pretty close to getting most of the soybeans done. But there’s still a lot of corn to still come in.
The collapse of a grain elevator in Martinton up in northern Iroquois County this week has provoked a lot of questions from the general population. Fricke says much of spilled soybeans can likely be saved.
AUDIO: They’ll have to bring in grain vacs and suck it up off the ground. And that’ll filter out any other foreign matter that might be in it. In that particular case, where the concrete was flaking off, they’ll have to do a good job of making sure none of that gets into the equipment. Part of the bin was still standing. And so, the beans that are still in the bin, that didn’t collapse; those will still be usable, absolutely.
The Martinton elevator collapse caused a spill of 1.8 million pounds of soybeans, or over 30,000 bushels.
