In its final crop progress report for 2023, the USDA on Monday says only 79 percent of the state’s corn has been harvested—which still leaves 21 percent in the ground.
Michigan Ag Today’s C.J. Miller spoke with Jeff Sanborn, who farms 1,800 acres of corn, soybeans, and wheat near Portland in Ionia County. Jeff is a fourth-generation cash crop farmer who currently serves as District 4 Director with Michigan Farm Bureau’s Board of Directors. He has previously served as President of Michigan Corn Growers and as a board member of the National Corn Growers Association.
“In my general area, the corn seems to be getting close to wrapped up. There may be a day or two left for a lot of the producers in the area, but I drove to Lansing a few days ago [and saw that] it’s regional. There are lots of corn out there, so I can believe that the numbers are probably correct,” he says.
Jeff shared his concerns since many of his corn acres have yet to be harvested.
“I think it’s always the balance of how much damage are you going to do to the soil that will carry over into future years, so I’ve been trying to pick and choose where I go and harvest. Maybe a little frost helps solidify things a little bit? But, if you don’t have your own grain set up, the elevators have been getting full of wet corn. That has been an issue this fall and has slowed down the whole process. They get filled up by mid-afternoon. I do have a grain set up, so that’s been nice, but it’s been a weird year from day one this year.”
Jeff also says a number of different factors have impacted his corn yields this year.
“We were awfully dry. We went from one extreme to the other. We were dry for almost two months after planting, so the corn looked awesome after the rain. But it just didn’t have the foundation for high yield. We had good yields, but not what you would think with the summer we had later. Plus, we had the cloudiness with the lack of sunshine with the Canadian forest fires, so it all added up. It was a good year overall, but not a record one. But there are some areas of the state that have had their best year ever.”
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with Michigan corn and soybean producer Jeff Sanborn, who also serves as District 4 Director of Michigan Farm Bureau’s Board of Directors.
