Eric Anderson of the Extension’s St. Joseph County office in Centreville said that as of Tuesday, 30 percent of the grain corn in the state had been harvested. That’s opposed to silage corn, where the whole stalk is harvested for animal feed. Southwest Michigan doesn’t grow much silage corn, but Anderson said anyone in the region who was growing it had most likely harvested it by now.
Anderson said timely rain, but not too much of it, throughout the season kept disease outbreaks to a minimum this year. And recent warm and dry weather (with the exception of a few rainy days this week) have helped the corn mature for harvest, and made it easier to work in the fields.
“Most of the folks that I’m talking to have either on par with their normal averages, or in some cases well above average. And that’s the case for corn and soybeans,” he said.
Soybeans are even further along than corn, with harvesting about two-thirds complete in southwest Michigan as of Tuesday. That is “slightly ahead” of the five-year average.
As for the corn harvest, it is just about on time.
“Most farmers, if they can get everything done in the field by Thanksgiving, they consider that a great year,” he said.