Fall harvest in full swing

Fall harvest season is well under way in Steele and Dodge counties. 

Matt Keller, who farms about 2,000 acres in Merton Township, said he is just wrapping up the bean harvest and expected to start harvesting corn earlier this week.

“The beans are very good,” he said, adding he was expecting a good and consistent crop.

Even in areas where the crop was poor, he said, the beans almost matched the higher-quality beans.

The downside, Keller said, is the low market price for beans. When the global market is good, he said, prices will be lower–and this is a good year almost everywhere. 

Some of his crop has already been sold at a pre-harvest price, and those beans are being sent to market. Keller said he also has the bin capacity to hold some of the crop until prices improve. Some of the soybeans are used for ethanol, he said, while others are sent to a crush plant. 

Keller said corn covers about two-thirds of his acreage. He also raises hogs, so he’ll hang on to part of that crop for feed. 

For both crops, he said, high yields will partially offset the lower per-bushel price.

In neighboring Dodge County, CHS logistics manager Nick Ulschmid said elevators have seen an increase in soybean deliveries over the past several weeks, with some corn coming in as well.

“It’s good for both beans and corn,” he said. 

Kasson is seeing deliveries of 4,000 to 5,000 bushels a day, he said, and had already taken in 100,000 bushels last week. 

As of early October, corn futures were trading at around $4.21 per bushel and soybeans at $10.33 per bushel, both below projected break-even points.

Adding to the uncertainty, Ulschmid said, is that China, traditionally the largest buyer of exported U.S. soybeans, has made no purchases since May because of tariff disagreements.

This harvest season is the first one since 2011 where all the elevator bins in Kasson were emptied by the time the new harvest started to arrive, Ulschmid said. That is good news for farmers, as there will be the capacity to store the grain until the markets become more stable. Market prices were high right after COVID, he said, before the current drop. 

Most farmers, he added, know that crop markets move in cycles. Trade negotiations between the U.S. and China are continuing, and the U.S. continues to look for new markets.

Much of the corn raised in the local area ultimately finds its way to nearby ethanol plants, while much of the soybean crop is exported overseas. 

According to the latest crop report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), as of Sept. 28, 66% of the soybeans in Minnesota have been harvested. That is an increase from last year, when 56% of the beans had been harvested at the end of September, and 2023, when only 31% had been harvested. 

Of the crops harvested, 75% were listed as in “good” or “excellent” condition. As of Sept. 28, only 5% of the corn was harvested, but farmers reported 73% in “good” or “excellent” condition.

The USDA traditionally issues updates on crop statistics every Monday afternoon. However, the USDA website is reporting that no crop reports will be issued during the government shutdown.