With no sign of a first frost anywhere in site, Vermilion County farmers have been taking advantage of warm weather to make a huge dent in the fall harvest. With the moisture level way down; it’s a simple case of “go-go-go.” But CIMG Ag Director Gale Cunningham says, just like it was talked about during the recent National Farm Health and Safety Week, please know when to stop and rest.
AUDIO: And the corn and beans are both dried down now. So they can just go; but they need to be careful as well; because sometimes they can overdo themselves.
And the more they go through the fields, the more diesel fuel lots of farmers are using. We all know about the extremely high diesel prices. And Cunningham says the recent presidential proclamation allowing dyed diesel fuel to be used on the highways and not just in the farm fields might help for a while; but there’s still plenty to decide upon later; such as if suspended taxes are going to have to still be paid, in some way, in the future.
AUDIO: We’ve got to be careful in the state of Illinois, because there’s an awful lot of things that haven’t been worked out yet; to really know what farmers can and cannot do with that fuel. It’s only just a temporary band aid. Because they’re going to have to pay the tax on that, eventually; because they used it on the road. So they’re going to have to pay the tax anyway, and in Illinois that’s about 70 cents a gallon.
As for the harvest itself; what is all this talk about some corn yields coming in low so far? Cunningham says just probably a perfect confluence of some timely bad breaks.
AUDIO: There’s some areas that had way too much rain early, and there was some replant done. The other thing that happened was at mid-season we had that real hot, dry spell; right during pollination. And grain fill a little bit later; so we were short moisture THEN. So it’s kind of too much and then not enough; kind of the worst of both sides of the moisture level.
Various forecasts around the state are looking for the first frost to come to Central Illinois perhaps around October 16th to 18th. To hear any of Gale Cunningham’s daily ag features and market reports, just go to https://vermilioncountyfirst.com/galecunningham/ for “Ag Check with Gale Cunningham.”
