Bean prices & harvest question

Bean prices & harvest question.

Farmer who rents my Mom's land in MN, SE of Willmar got his beans off back about the end of Sept. Others not so fortunate. Was down there Oct 27th again and there was maybe 1/2 the corn out at that time. Ground did not seem too bad and his wife was doing some fall tillage. So, that area not real wet.

I live & work in the Fargo, ND area and there are a few bean fields I drive past still not harvested. It had been wet in Oct. but not THAT wet around here I would think. Some beets got pulled 2 weeks ago that put mud on the road but no more than usual.

So, tonight while driving past those fields that now have about 2" snow on them and its supposed to be single digits at night Friday (freeze up the mud I would expect) I got to wondering if wet fields is the reason they are still there OR could it be that the farmer is so underwater on them vs bean prices they are letting them sit to rot or something?

????

They are most likely waiting for freeze-up
so that they can get a combine across the
field to harvest.

Every so often, we get a wet fall, and need
the ground to freeze before we can harvest
soybeans. It is a nerve-racking thing to
wait on, hoping that it will freeze solid
before the snow piles up.

Lon

I suppose you have to combine them and sell them to get the welfare check that we, the taxpayers are
providing! From what I see, no elevators are buying!

I don't know of an elevator that isn't buying beans. but then we're in Nebraska. I know the big bean crusher ADM is still buying beans. can be lots of
reasons that a crop is in the field!

Beans need to dry down to 11-12% to keep in bins. With ambient humidity levels running in the 80 plus % range day after day, for the month of October beans are not drying down, in the field, even though a combine can get on the ground and harvest them. Around here in Central NY. Most of the grain facilities are no longer accepting beans in the 12% plus range and higher. They are out of capacity to dry/roast all the wet beans. Many farmers here have switched to corn, and left beans in the field, but that is not much better. They still have to reduce the moisture, in the corn, but the ethanol market will accept a more marginal corn crop.
Loren

Been a lot of discussion on quality issues. Sprouting in the pod. Mold. Blight. etc. Some fields sitting until farmers know what is going to happen with it. Probably not
enough storage capacity to sort based on quality. Further, the Midwest does not have a lot of facilities in terms of drying beans. Can be problematic to try and air dry
from 16 percent down w/o heat.

I was at the elevator yesterday and I made
the comment of there is still quite alot of
corn around here still in the field. Here
being West Central Iowa. Anyway he made the
comment that the ground is still too muddy
many are waiting for dryer weather or
frozen ground. I've got about an acre left
that I'm waiting for the ground to freeze.
Hopefully Saturday morning, I didn't think
mud was an issue here until I talked to
him. I thought it was more that the
elevators were full but our corn yields are
down considerably from the last 2 years.

It?s been wet enough that beans that were mostly dry at the beginning of October are now back to 20% moisture. The guys with beets have
been focused on them, needing all the help they have since they got rained out of the typical harvest window. Many farmers also switched to
corn, hoping for better weather to get the beans done, but the sunny long range forecast never materialized.

Hopefully, after the weekend, it will be cold enough to get at the remaining beans. It needs to be below about 10F to harvest snow. Any
warmer than that and it just freezes up in the combine.

If you head NW towards Cooperstown, they haven?t been able to harvest hardly anything since wheat.

And then there are also the guys that struggle to get the crop off in a good year, let alone a challenging one.

yea corn growers are not harvesting 3.30 corn so they can get .01 cents********************************

I?m over by New Ulm. We got a brief weather window to get the beans in, and could slog out most of the corn. There are still a few corn fields
left out there.

The ground can be pretty muddy, could need to dry some.

More likely the beans themselves are too wet. If you missed that brief weather window here for beans, they got rained on and it got cool and no
sun and the beans went right back up to 18-20% moisture, which is way way too wet. Beans need to be down to 13%.

It?s possible the beans were too wet, he worked on corn, and concentrated on corn getting that done, and hopes to now come back for the
beans. This year the weather did not cooperate from April through today, it was just horribly miserable year. It hasn?t played nice with us at all
any step of the way.

Now might as well wait for the harder freeze and get what you can on the beans. They will still be too wet, but the forecast doesn?t lend to them
ever drying in the field this year.

It?s certainly possible to get behind the 8 ball financially, but at combing time, you will find a way to get the beans combined, it would be a waste
of dollars to ?let them rot?, even if you are way way behind on your loans, the banker would lend you enough for fuel to get the crop in and take
the $$$ crop.

Paul

They were waiting for the moisture to drop, most likely. Especially with the prices caused by El Presidente's trade war with China, which BTW according to him should be "easy to win". Why he hasn't won it yet, then, remains a mystery.

Grouse

Here in Iowa which is way south of North Dakota it’s hard to get soys to dry down to a good storage moisture of 12% to 13% after the first of November. The days are too short and cool for good drying in the field. Wet beans can be combined successfully after it freezes but when the seed thaws out in the bin it will go bad fast.

We have been mudding the last week now. Before that we were cutting on solid ground. The corn started to sprout in the ear on the stalk so got the corn done before more damage done there.
Now we are suposed to get 1-3 friday night with beans in the field. My brother is all excited as he has contracts to fill with not many beans done to fill them with.

Thanks. Some reason I'd not thought about moisture content. Reminds me the renter put some of the beans (maybe 1/2 full) in the 4200bu bin on the farm as he was out of space at his place. He mentioned not needing to run air on them as they were dry enough.

When I was in HS in the early 80s there were some wet falls that we didn't get all the beans out since the Deere 45 combine could not get in the low spots w/o getting stuck. Remember Dad picking some corn in mid December one year too. Also used 2 tractors with chains and a old tire between them to plow one field of cornstalks as the frost/ice on the trash was so slippery.

1993 Dad did plow up some beans unharvested since the crop was a disaster that summer with all the cold wet weather. Beans were like 6" tall and corn waist high w/o any cobs on it.

i work for a German company. our internal news letters indicate the china economy is slowing maybe partially due to the tariffs. you don't here that on the mainstream US news...

if the are buying all their beans somewhere else.. the global prices will rise and someone else will buy our beans... short term maybe some pain but long term the markets will/should correct things.

we (US farmers) shouldn't have all our eggs in one basket anyway... that's a good path to failure

(quoted from post at 10:41:07 11/08/18) i work for a German company. our internal news letters indicate the china economy is slowing maybe partially due to the tariffs. you don't here that on the mainstream US news...

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What US "mainstream" news are you tuning in to? My market news sources were saying China's economy was slowing starting about 5 years ago. Glad Fox has finally caught up to the mainstream in this regard.

Reports of China "slowing" are only being rehashed by Fox to try to provide "proof" that El Presidente is "winning". And remember, rule #1 is El Presidente always wins. He even says so himself.

In reality, this "slowing" is really a slowing in the MASSIVE rate of year on year GROWTH. Yes, China's GDP is slowing from record rates of 10-20% to a more normal and sustainable 4-8%.

El Presidente's little tarrif war doesn't impact them at all. You don't still think that it's China that pays the tariff, do you? A tariff is a tax on US, not them.

Grouse

I haven't actually sold any, but elevators/co-ops around here are sure buying. At least they're listing their prices on the radio every morning.

UPDATE:

Drove by that bean field on the way home tonight and there was at least 1 combine and couple of trucks and a cart out there going at it.

We had a couple nights in the teens and single digits the past week although there was some more snow added the weekend. So, either the ground firmed up or the really cold weather freeze-dried the beans some??