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 This was the first harvest in Bramer's 17 years of experience
with no “rain rest.”
Harvest started in earnest the first week of September and continued
without any let-up. Many farmers have their harvest and their field
work already done, too. The down side of having no rain-rest is that
there was no time to rest and recover and spend time with friends
and family. And the lack of rain-rest underscores that producers in
this area need rain for next year’s crop.
The other surprise this season was that bean volumes were much
better than expected. Bramer quickly ran a report that said that
Topflight was over 107% of last year on beans. Usually farmers count
on an average of about 55 bushels of beans per acre, but this year
many farmers were reporting over 80 (Bramer said like 83 comes to
mind). These kind of numbers were seen across the grain belt.
The hybrids are really showing what they can do, especially beans.
The old adage is that beans don’t like “wet feet.” However, with
these hybrids, early “wet feet” seems to be ok. Even though the
price continues to be higher for beans and lower for corn, there
were not a lot of acres converted from corn to beans. Bramer said in
this area farmers largely stick to their crop rotations.
 Corn yields were in line with expectations: slightly above to
slightly below. In the Atlanta area and in fields along Route 10
near Beason and Johnson Siding, they had a greater accumulation of
rain in the mid June to early July deluge, and corn yields there
were lower than expected. It all depended on what kind of ground the
corn was planted in. Rolling ground handled the extreme June/July
rains better than flat ground. Overall, 93% of last year’s corn crop
was expected. This corn harvest this year is as solid as any year.
Corn that was harvested early was coming in 12-13% moisture at
first, but later Topflight saw plenty of corn at 16% moisture. The
corn didn’t mature naturally this year because of the summer kill
that came around the third week of July. Topflight operations cut
dryers off early because the corn was coming in at or below the
normal 15% test moisture, and because of this Topflight lost some of
their regular seasonal drying income.
Test weights on corn were largely satisfactory, even though some of
the early stuff was light. When the moisture is low, then the weight
of each kernel is low. It takes more kernels then to make up the
50-60 lb per bushel. Some of the soybeans came in with smaller
kernels. Reports showed soybeans were coming in at 57 lbs per bushel
and corn at 11-12% moisture at 59 lbs per bushel. Bramer said these
were good average test weights. Average overall moisture was 16%.
For Topflight this turned out to be a normal operation year. They
have corn on the ground in three locations, but no emergency piles,
indicating that it was a normal harvest, not an exceptional harvest.
On the quality of corn and beans, there were no real quality issues
or discounts. Overall there were slightly better yields on corn than
expected. Bramer said “Our farmers are great at what they do.”
 Eastern states had significantly more rain than we had here in
central Illinois and suffered more crop damage and loss. Ohio,
Pennsylvania and Indiana in some places had a very disappointing
harvest. Iowa had some disappointing areas as well. These failures
in other states helps increase basis (basis is defined as the cash
price minus the futures price) when some areas suffer. There is
currently an effort to ship corn and beans to other areas of the
U.S. by rail to make up for the crop deficits in those areas.
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Prices aren’t very interesting. On beans upper $8, while corn demand
remains slow. Better bean yields may push bean prices down. Recent
changes in Chinese economics have significantly affected prices.
European markets are depressed and accepting less imports. Corn
export sales for the 19th of October are 32% behind last year and
soybeans are 24% behind sales compared to last year. The global
demand for beans remains tremendous and lends support for continued
good prices.
Bramer said that what happens in South American and other producer
areas can significantly change the market. Right now Brazil is at
planting time and they are very dry, helping hold global bean and
corn prices higher. If Brazil gets the rain they need, it will
likely put some downward price pressure on markets.
The GMO issue remains a very serious discussion with export partners
about what they will accept. Since global supplies are very
plentiful, export partners can be more stringent about what they
will accept.
Top Flight takes the majority of their grain to market to ADM in
Decatur and Tate & Lyle in Peoria. Many of their elevators outside
Logan County have rail access direct to these locations.
Bramer finished with this forecast: We need moisture here for next
year's crop. Ground water levels are low. If we don’t get adequate
rain and snow during the winter to increase ground water, we will be
starting out at a deficit for the next planting season and that will
affect next year’s crop.
[Topflight operates 19 facilities in
Piatt, Macon, Moultrie, Dewitt, Douglas, Champaign, & Logan counties
with a permanent storage capacity of 37 million bushels of grain.
Topflight acquired East Lincoln Farmer’s Grain with elevators at
Atlanta, Lawndale, Krueger, Johnson Siding and Beason in Logan
County in 2014. The Logan County operations are managed by Todd
Steinberg, located at the Kruger elevator.]
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