Corn harvest in Douglas County has wrapped up with another year of strong yields - so strong that some farmers delayed harvesting while waiting for elevator or storage space to open up.
"In the Upper Midwest, there's just not enough storage for a crop of this size," said Tim Lauthen, manager of the Pro Ag Farmers Co-op Elevator in Brandon.
Lauthen estimated yields in the area at 200 bushels per acre, the second year in a row of a bumper crop.
"Either it goes into grain bag storage like we do, in sheds or in piles, or stays in fields and waits until there is space. ... That's what we are seeing now," Lauthen said.
The long fall was helpful, Lauthen said.
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"It did help the industry move some crop and let it be in the field longer," Lauthen said.
With prices for corn remaining low, farmers "are not real interested in investing in corn storage," he added.
Kerby Lund, who farms between Brandon and Evansville, said "harvest really went as smooth as could be" and was done by Oct. 22, with corn yields 15 to 20 bushels higher than he had expected going into the growing season.
He rents one bin on a farm to a neighbor and said some producers were creeping along with harvest while waiting for space at elevators in the area, which were all at capacity.
"That was probably the biggest hold up of this fall - looking for storage," Lund said.
The big corn comes on top of a strong year for soybeans, which along with other factors like a decline in the dairy and livestock industry and fewer fields planted to alfalfa, has compounded the storage shortage.
"Less forage adds to the bushels that have to come to town," Lund said.
The number of dairy farms has long been in decline and while losing one or two producers each year doesn't have a big immediate impact, it does add up over time, he said.
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Lauthen said there is still some corn in the field in Otter Tail and Todd counties and some farmers will try to keep harvesting despite the first snow.
Strong yields help make up for low prices, but the glut of supply for ag commodities and other factors like a strong dollar that affects exports means profitability will remain a challenge in all ag sectors, said Pauline Van Nurden, a University of Minnesota Extension educator in farm business management out of Willmar.
Livestock producers are encountering many of the same challenges as those selling cash grain, Van Nurden said.
"It doesn't look like one sector of the ag economy is going to come out of it faster than another," she said.
Lauthen said one positive sign is that prices are looking better for next year's crop of soybeans, which has lower production costs than corn or wheat. He expects some shift in acres from corn to soybeans in the area.
"The soybean market keeps you optimistic," Lauthen said, though it relies heavily on exports to places such as China.
"The China market is huge. If we don't have that we are in big trouble."
