It’s time to count European corn borers

[SEPT. 11, 2000]  With fall upon us once more, several employees of the University of Illinois will once again take to the fields to assess damage from the European corn borer and potential populations of this pest that will overwinter. These assessments will help growers determine the need to plant Bt corn next growing season and will allow ag professionals to make recommendations.

The corn borer is a flesh-colored worm with a dark head. We generally have two generations of the insect each year in our area of the state. The first generation comes from moths laying eggs on corn that is in the "whorl" stage, or doesn’t have the tassel out yet. The moth lays eggs on the underside of a leaf in a cluster that looks quite a bit like fish scales. These eggs hatch into the small worms that go through growth stages until they are big enough to tunnel into the stalk to pupate and eventually come out as moths to lay more eggs. The second generation goes through the same cycle, but after the tassels are out on the corn.

 

 

Damage from the European corn borer comes in the form of disrupting the tissue of the stalk that carries nutrients and water to the ear. Other forms of damage come from stalks that break over, ears that drop off and damage to kernels of corn that are eaten or damaged. Average losses from one borer in a stalk of corn are about five percent for a first-generation borer and about four percent on average for the second generation.

 

 

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The sampling currently taking place has been done for many years in Illinois. The results have shown that the population builds up over about a six-year period; then, immediately after a peak year, the population "crashes." The crash is due to natural predators and diseases that affect the borers when populations reach very high levels. Some survey years in Logan County have found fields that have averaged four borers in every plant. Current early information is showing a higher-than-anticipated population but still averaging less than one borer per plant. After completion, the Logan County results will be combined with the rest of the state to give regional counts as well as county counts.

For more information on European corn borer, contact the University of Illinois Extension Office in Logan County at 732-8289.

[John Fulton]


Elevator prepares for bountiful harvest

[SEPT. 8, 2000]  The country grain elevators in every small hamlet of Logan County are a hub of activity this time of year. These unassuming skyscrapers of the prairie are more than oversized storage sheds. Instead, they are an integral part of the farm business and represent a major component of the local economy.

[Click here to see photos]

Harvest is just starting to roll in all corners of the county, but elevators like East Lincoln Farmers’ Grain Cooperative have been preparing for harvest for several months now. That included building a much-needed 420,000-bushel bin at the Beason facility. The steel monstrosity is 90 feet in diameter and 70 feet tall at the eaves.

Why so large? Hugh Whalen, manager of East Lincoln Farmers’ Grain, says that the cost for storing a bushel of grain decreases as the size of the bin increases. Larger bins constructed of steel rather than concrete are the current trend.

 

Whalen says the combination of more acres in production from the Freedom to Farm Act, along with good yields this year, will increase the bushels of grain received at county elevators. This is in addition to a portion of the 1999 crop that has yet to be sold. Demand for storage at county elevators was so great last year that a lot of corn was dumped on the ground. Although this can be an effective temporary solution for storage in a dry fall, it can be very risky in less-than-ideal weather.

Now that more storage has been built, East Lincoln's next challenge is to find harvest help for working the scales and unloading grain at all five of their locations. East Lincoln Farmers’ Grain locations in Beason, Atlanta, Lawndale, Johnston siding and Kruger remain open from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. six days a week and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays from now until the end of harvest, weather permitting.

These longer hours are appreciated by farmers who are most concerned with getting their crop out in a timely manner without any major breakdowns. The elevator can be a big help in achieving the farmer’s goal by weighing and unloading trucks as quickly as possible.

 

As those truckloads of corn or soybeans roll across the scale, a full weight is recorded and samples are taken to test for moisture and foreign material like weed seeds, stems and pods. After the truck unloads it will return to the scale for an empty weight. Gross bushels on the truck will be calculated. The weight ticket is then entered into the computer to build a delivery sheet and to figure the shrink bushels. A delivery sheet indicates the farmer’s name, landlord’s name and how the grain is to be divided. It also compiles all of the scale tickets delivered from a farm, average crop moisture, the net bushels and whether the grain is sold or stored.

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Grain harvested early in the season will likely be in the 20 percent moisture range. Corn to be stored will be shrunk to 14 percent moisture. Corn applying to contract will be shrunk to 15 percent moisture.

Most of East Lincoln Farmers' grain supply is trucked to one of three markets: ADM and Staley in Decatur, Cargill and ADM in Havana, or Williams Energy in Pekin. Ethanol is made from corn delivered to Williams Energy, and Cargill Processing in Bloomington buys soybeans for processing. Some local corn is shipped by rail to the chicken farms in Arkansas and Texas.

The staff at East Lincoln is responsible for finding the best market for the grain they buy from the farmers. They are on the phone constantly with the processors and river terminals to see where some of the grain stored in the elevators can be sold.

It is up to the farmers to decide what portion of their crop will be sold, stored at the elevator or stored on the farm.

Beth Mosier, administrative assistant at East Lincoln, says that sometimes she is a "sounding board for the farmers." "Farmers know what they want to do (when it comes to marketing the crop), they just want someone to listen to them," she says.

Marketing a crop can indeed be a tricky proposition. East Lincoln Farmers' Grain provides support via informational and educational seminars, one-to-one market planning, and a new tool this year, the East Lincoln Farmers' website.

The website for East Lincoln Farmers’ Grain (www.elfgrain.com) has become a valuable resource for many of their patrons since going online this spring. Updated daily, the site contains information about the cooperative, a bid page, bulletin board for members, and links to the Chicago Board of Trade, central region radar and a drought monitor. Beth says that one of her customers prints out the closing bids each day and saves them in a binder as a resource for tracking market trends.

Ultimately each farmer must synthesize all the information available and determine a strategy for marketing his/her crop. Even though there are a lot of risks in the marketplace, farmers can be sure that their local country elevator is doing everything they can to make harvest as easy as possible.

[Marty Ahrends]

Keep in tune to the progress of Logan County’s bountiful harvest on Lincolndailynews.com’s Rural Review. In the coming weeks, we will bring you pictures of the harvesting process as well as what goes on at an elevator in the heat of the season.

 

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