I usually see a huge spike in deer when the farmers cut their corn fields. Usually they cut them mid October. They still haven't cut any of them yet. Anybody else having a similar experience?
Yes, it was the rain this last few weeks. I was hunting Chinese Ditch Parrots in Iowa this past weekend and a lot of the corn was still up. It gave them a place to hide and laugh at Thor the wonder dog and I. Still managed to get a few. Should have the corn all in by gun season.
It really isnt that late in the season. Just the past few years harvest as been earlier than most. It wasnt to long ago that we were happy to been done by the beginning of December.
I have seen several fields being cut in the last two days and the farm I hunt around has all the corn down now. With some rain coming Sat and Sun I would guess more farmers would push to get the fields harvested today and tomorrow
Our corn is still in. Some of it had to be replanted back in May after one of the big rains we had. When I was over that way last Friday me and the bro in law were checking and it could be picked. Some of the ears have fallen off the stalk. In another way I'm kinda glad it's still there cause that will keep the deer on our property for the time being. At least through the opener anyway; after that it can go.
There are 2 distinct problems at work here. #1 the wet spring prevented a lot of people from getting it in early and prevented timely replanting. So if people didn't get it in early their corn is much further behind.
The other problem at work is that yields this year are breaking records. The thing that comes with record yields across the board is that all the grain storage fills up and they cannot take anymore until they can get it shipped out via rail etc. If the record harvest is a nationwide thing often times they can't even ship it out on rail because everybody else is full as well. So the elevator isn't taking corn because they are full and the farmer has filled all of his storage, and his wagons/trucks are full. He is between a rock and a hard place and must leave the corn in the field until he can empty his trucks. That was the case in many areas this year. My dad shelled over half his corn just fine, the last half took him 3 times as long though because everybody was full and they were only able to get a few semi's dumped each day. They were lucky because they have semis so they have options on where to haul the corn, people with wagons can't haul as far so they are more limited... just some thoughts to ponder.
I was talking to a farmer that said his yields ate a lot higher per acre than normal. Thus he does not have room to store it and won't be picking the rest until he sales some.
Corn rarely dries down to "spec" on its own anyways. It almost always has to be dried either via forcing ambient air through the bin on warm, dry days or via a gas-fired dryer (raises drying costs but can dry higher quantities faster).
I suspect it is due to a multitude of reasons as I stated above. Lack of storage/capacity and possibly moisture/maturity being the 2 main culprits.