Southern Alberta corn growers are struggling to get this year’s corn out of wet fields and into the silage pits for the winter.
More than 120 millimetres of rain received in mid-September soaked fields and delayed harvesting.
Rick Paskal, who was harvesting corn for silage Oct. 3 near his feedlot at Iron Springs, Alta., said the harvest is a week behind normal.
“We’re having one hell of a time getting it off with the rain,” he said, adding recent cool days have done little to help dry it down.
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Paskal said the crop is well below average due to insufficient heat units during the growing season, with many kernels not yet mature.
He expected the crop will be 50-75 percent of normal.
Arvid Aasen, pasture and forage agronomist with Alberta Agriculture, said the corn suffered from a cool and often wet year. Recent frost is helping it dry down faster, but much is being put up with little starch in the grain, he said.
In Saskatchewan, about 10 percent of the corn silage has been harvested, with operations expected to continue throughout the month.
Les Bohrson, senior agrologist with Saskatchewan Agriculture at Swift Current, said crop yields are good for 2005, considered an average corn heat unit year.
Saskatchewan avoided early frosts but took a little longer to get to those average heat units than other years, said Bohrson, who noted incomplete cob development in some fields.
“It would have been nice to get the bonus heat to get a record crop.”
He estimated Saskatchewan has about 20,000 acres in feed corn, which is either grazed, combined or used for silage.
Good fall weather has extended Manitoba’s harvest season for corn.
“The silage is coming off great guns in most areas of the province,” said Pam de Rocquigny, business development specialist for feed grains for Manitoba Agriculture.
That’s being helped by warm, dry, windy fall weather and a lack of killing frosts.
She expected an average to above average feed corn crop.
The Manitoba Corn Growers Association reported seeded area down by as much as 10,000 acres, due to a wet spring that prevented many producers from planting.
