About This Episode
Marc Cartwright works on the Pioneer sales team out of Grand Forks, North Dakota, supporting large operations in the Red River Valley and the surrounding region. Shay Foulk called him in late November 2019 for a harvest update, and the picture was rough. Wheat, canola, and sugar beets were done, soybeans were 90 to 95 percent complete, and corn was only 20 to 25 percent harvested, roughly a month behind a normal year with wet autumn conditions holding everything back.
The corn that was coming off was wet and light. Moisture ran 22 to 25 percent on the good end and 27 to 30 percent on much of the rest, with test weights in the 50 to 52 pound range. Cartwright traces it to the finish rather than the start, since most corn went in between May 7 and May 20 on 80 to 85 day maturities. Heat units were near normal through July, then mid-August turned cool and cloudy, with roughly 85 percent cloudy days through September and early October.
That leaves a set of bad choices. Propane is available but expensive, and drying from 28 percent down to 15 or 16 does not raise test weight, so producers spend the money and still hold a marginally marketable product. Stalk quality issues were showing up in some hybrids, raising the risk of leaving corn out. Spring harvest is possible but collides with fieldwork and planting. The American Crystal cooperative had only 65 to 70 percent of its sugar beets out.
“Even after they do dry it in the grain dryer, the test weight's not coming up. So they still have a marginally marketable product.”
— Marc Cartwright
Key Takeaways
Corn harvest in the region was only 20 to 25 percent complete in late November, about a month behind normal, while soybeans were 90 to 95 percent done.
Corn moisture was 22 to 25 percent at best and often 27 to 30 percent, with test weights running 50 to 52 pounds.
Planting was actually timely, May 7 to May 20 on mostly 80 to 85 day maturities; the problem was a cool, cloudy finish with about 85 percent cloudy days through September and early October.
Drying from 28 percent down to 15 or 16 percent burns a lot of propane and does not bring test weight up, so the grain stays marginally marketable.
Stalk quality was starting to break down in some hybrids, which raises yield loss risk for anyone waiting on field drydown through more snow.
The local American Crystal cooperative harvested only 65 to 70 percent of its sugar beets, pulling a major cash crop out of the region's cash flow.
Full Transcript
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Shay
Foulk: Welcome back everyone to the Ag View Pitch. I'm joined here today with special guest Mark Cartwright from North Dakota. How's it going today, Mark?
Marc
Cartwright: Very well, Shay. Thanks for inviting me on your program.
Shay
Foulk: Yeah, glad to have you. Could you tell us a little bit about, uh, what you do and where exactly you're located there in North Dakota?
Marc
Cartwright: Yeah, I work on the sales team for Pioneer Hybrid. Up here in northern North Dakota, Grand Forks, right on the state line between North Dakota and Minnesota. And I help the sales team execute with some of the large, large farmers up in the Red River Valley and, and outskirts of the valley in this region as well.
Shay
Foulk: Great. So I'm sure you have a pretty good insight on, on how things are in that area. So I thought I'd first start off here by asking, you know, how's harvest progress in your area or lack thereof?
Marc
Cartwright: Yeah, it's been a challenging harvest, to say the least. From the wheat to the canola, to the sugar beets, to the soybeans, and now the corn. Things have been coming off really slow with the really wet autumn conditions that we've been having. And, you know, I'd say every, you know, we're all wrapped up with the wheat and canola and sugar beets and, and the soybeans would probably be around 90-95% completed. Really tough to find a standing field of soybeans out there. And the corn is probably around 20-25%. We're really slow pace on the corn harvest. We're probably a month behind our average, where we would typically be. And guys are really struggling based on the fact that the, the corn is extremely high moisture content still, mainly in that 22 to 25, if we're lucky, a lot of it's more on that 27 to 30 range.
And correspondingly, we're having a lot of difficulties finding test weight in the grain as well.
Shay
Foulk: So I know some producers early on in that area had decent planting conditions. What did it look like in your region? And how has that affected it here late into the season?
Marc
Cartwright: Yeah, that's a good question to kind of reflect back and see where maybe some of our issues have originated. Truthfully, though, most of the corn this area got planted fairly timely, you know, for us that would be May 7th, May 8th, all the way through May 20th. There's a few guys that, a few acres that got planted after May 20th. You know, up in this short growing season environment where we have a lot of 75, 80-day corn products for maturity, we just don't have a lot of options to go earlier for later planting dates, you know, so a lot of guys tend to cut off corn planting around the 22nd to the 25th of May. And so therefore, you know, those unplanted acres, some went to soybeans, some went to PP. There wasn't a lot of PP in the region that was more southern and southeastern North Dakota. But we did have our struggles in certain spots as well.
Shay
Foulk: Now, that's interesting to hear just how that varies. So what is a common relative maturity on the corn that you're planting in that area? I mean, you mentioned on the lower end, there. But what would you say is typical for your region?
Marc
Cartwright: Yeah, the 80 to 85-day would cover a big swath of it. You know, we got a few guys closer to the Canadian border, or maybe further out west in some cooler environments that find a lot of 75, 80-day stuff. Then we got growers that have nice, efficient grain handling systems. That would be able to push maturity a little bit more, be able to take a little bit bigger risk, and they might be playing with some 90, 90 CRM maturities.
Shay
Foulk: Okay, no, that's great to hear. So with the, you know, somewhat normal planting date there, how is the wetness late into the season and that lower test weight that you mentioned? What can that be attributed to? And why are we seeing that in the fields right now?
Marc
Cartwright: Yeah, I, you know, from my standpoint, I think we just have a lot of issues with the conditions we had to finish the season. We kind of had normal heat unit accumulation, maybe trending a little below average through June and July and early August. And then around mid-August, we really started getting cooler, a lot of cloudy days, we didn't get the solar radiation. And test weight's kind of one of those characteristics that builds at the end of the season into that grain kernel, as you know, and we just didn't have any, any heat. Probably 85% of our days were cloudy through September and, and early October that corn was trying to finish up. And I think that's where our issues lie right there. So I know there's a lot of guys that are thinking as they potentially wait here for that grain moisture to dry naturally. In the field a little bit.
We can maybe see some higher test weights. We'll just have to see how it plays out here. It's kind of unprecedented conditions. We probably haven't seen anything like this for at least 10, 15, 20 years, you know.
Shay
Foulk: Right. As the calendar, you know, turns over a new page every day here, a lot of producers are having to make some difficult decisions on what are we going to be doing? How does the year continue with 65 to 70% of corn left in that area. What's going through producers' minds right now? Is it mainly just focused on getting everything out that you can, or are there long-term decisions being made there?
Marc
Cartwright: Well, they're, they're struggling, you know, the, the grain terminals are, are changing their message every day on what they're going to be accepting for, for grain and stuff. You know, nobody likes to have 50, 51, 52-pound test weight grain. But the reality of the situation is that there's, there's not many bushels that are, that are better quality than that. So, you know, they're trying to make sure they got room for storage. A lot of, little bit of moisture still in the air. We don't want to pile stuff on the ground. And, but we still want to be able to keep an eye on the grain as we move forward too. So we're starting to see a little bit of stock quality issues showing up in the corn, uh, some hybrids more so than others, obviously.
So that's kind of my concern is, uh, you know, if we do leave it out there, if we do wait, and we do encounter another snowstorm or two in the meantime, uh, what kind of yield losses could we potentially be looking at and things like that.
Shay
Foulk: So with, uh, the drying side of things, having to pull such high moisture percentage corn down to storable conditions. A lot of areas have experienced an LP shortage. Have you seen that in, in your region? And if so, how's that affecting things right now?
Marc
Cartwright: Yeah, there's, there's concerns of that as well. It seems to vary from, from little, from small locations to other locations around the area here. Some guys are not finding it too big of an issue. Obviously, the price has gone up some. So there's concerns there. But I think there's propane around and guys are finding it if they want to use it. I'd say the bigger issue is primarily drying is taking a lot of propane to dry a bushel of grain, obviously from 28% moisture down to 16, 15, 16% moisture. Guys don't want to make that investment. And, uh, and even after they do dry it in the grain dryer, the test weight's not coming up. So they still have a marginally marketable product, you know, that's, that's ready for acceptance at a terminal at this stage of the game.
Shay
Foulk: A lot of tough conditions to be balanced there. Uh, one other thing that I wanted to touch on you here is looking at spring harvest, and if we do get these snowstorms that you mentioned as the calendar continues to turn over, What are options there? What does that look like? There's a lot of people in the Midwest and throughout the country that, you know, didn't even think about that as an option. I was talking with another producer today and I mentioned spring harvest and they said, what? And I had to repeat myself and say, no, it's spring harvest. So can you talk just a little bit to how that looks in your area? Yeah. And what you learned from the past there.
Marc
Cartwright: Yeah, we've had some experience with that up here. Uh, it's not ideal. Obviously guys want to get that product out of the field and minimize the risk. Uh, but at the same time, if, if they're pretty confident, and again, it's a big unknown if that test weight's going to come up as it dries down, then that risk is minimized by, uh, you know, better quality grain, less discounts at the terminal and stuff too. So, uh, it's really a battle. You got to think about all the the fieldwork that we got to get done in the spring, just to plant the crop. You know, guys aren't really wanting to look at harvesting a crop and then trying to plant in a similar window at the same time. You know, it just puts a real big strain on infrastructure and people and everything else.
And then just the logistics, you know, corn's a high-volume crop, we've got to get that product moving through the system. You know, next year's harvest will be here before we know it actually, and We've got to be able to manage the logistics of that situation also moving forward.
Shay
Foulk: Now, that's a great point. I think a lot of people are at the point where they're ready for 2019 to be over and hopefully get some good things going here for 2020. Anything else you want to hit on, Mark, before I let you go? Anything that you want to talk about in your region?
Marc
Cartwright: No, I mean, that's— those have been the big struggles with the corn and soybeans. Probably a little bit more closer to home has been our sugar beet harvest has been really challenging with all the wet conditions. And the local American Crystal Cooperative probably only got 65-70% of the sugar beets harvested. So, you know, one of the big cash crops that's due to put a lot of cash into these guys' pockets is not going to be there this year just because of the lack of harvest. And it's going to put another strain on operations moving forward as well. So we're fighting through it. We're making plans for 2020 regardless, but definitely more, more issues and concerns and stress in the environment than we're typical— than we typically see this time of year.
Shay
Foulk: Well, we're praying for good conditions up in your area and thinking of you all. Appreciate you taking the time here today, Mark.
Marc
Cartwright: Yeah, appreciate you guys too. Happy Thanksgiving to all, and we look forward to maybe staying in touch and giving another update in a few weeks or a month or whatever may suit your schedule.
Shay
Foulk: Absolutely. No, that sounds great. And thanks everyone for listening. We will catch you next time on the Ag View Pitch.
Narrator: Thanks again for listening, everyone. If you would like to hear more content from Ag View Solutions, listen to our other podcasts such as Dad's Wisdom or our current Harvest Series. Ag View Solutions works as an integral part of operations like yours. Side by side for farm profit management, business collaboration and structuring, facilitating industry-leading peer groups, and coaching and consulting tailored to your farm's unique needs. We know that no two farms are the same, and we are here to help make your farm be the best it can be. You can learn more at agviewsolutions.com, email us at agviewpitch@gmail.com, or call Chris Barron at 319-533- 5703. We really look forward to talking with you.