2017 corn crop may set records in Delaware after wet summer

RAE TYSON
DELMARVANOW CORRESPONDENT
Harvested corn is loaded into a truck for transportation in Georgetown.

As fall arrives, Delmarva farmers are busy harvesting this year's crop of corn and soybeans — the feed grains essential to sustain the region's poultry and dairy operations.

The corn harvest has already begun in earnest at a number of Sussex County farms. Soybean picking will probably not begin for several more weeks.

Southern Delaware farmers use huge combines — commonly Case IH or John Deere models — to harvest the corn. The cost of a new combine: between $350,000 and $550,000 for the base model.

From the fields, harvested corn, separated from the husks by the combine, is loaded into tractor-trailers — on the road day and night — and transported to poultry producers or local grain storage facilities, both on and off the farm.

With ideal growing conditions this year, farmers and agriculture officials say the 2017 corn crop may be one of the best in recent Delaware history.

Corn is harvested at a Georgetown farm.

"The crop is fantastic, probably one of the best I have ever seen," said Walter "Burli" Hopkins Jr.

The Hopkins family raises about 700 acres of corn that will feed more than 1,000 hungry dairy cows at their farm in Lewes. 

"It has been a great year for corn," said Kenneth M. Bounds, Delaware deputy secretary of agriculture.

"It's been a good year so far," said Travis Rogers, taking a break from harvesting corn for ABC Farm in Georgetown.

Added Georgetown farmer Jay Baxter, who has 1,000 acres of corn to harvest this year: "So far, it is a very, very good crop."

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Delaware has about 180,000 acres of corn planted in 2017, up from 164,000 acres in 2016 and slightly better than the 178,000 acres in 2012.

Last year, Delaware corn sold for an average cash price of $3.51 per bushel and the state Department of Agriculture is projecting at least $3.63 a bushel in 2017.

And the farmers' instincts about the size of this year's corn crop have been confirmed by state agricultural experts, who are predicting an average of 190 bushels per acre will be harvested statewide compared to 170 bushels an acre a year ago.

Dairy cows feed at Hopkins Farms in Lewes.

Though corn harvesting is in full swing, a casual estimate is that close to 75 percent of the Delaware crop has not been picked.

In Delaware, nearly all the harvested feed corn is used to feed poultry or dairy cows.

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Without question, the biggest consumer of corn and soybeans regionally is the Delmarva poultry industry, which includes producers like Perdue, Allen Harim, Mountaire, Tysons and Amick Farms.

And poultry is the backbone of Delaware agriculture, the largest contributor to the state's economy.

"That's why grain farming has been so viable on Delmarva for all these years," said Bounds.

Recent estimates have poultry contributing 13,000 jobs and $3.2 billion annually.

The Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc. estimates that more than 1,500 poultry farms operate in the region, with more than 4,600 individual chickenhouses in operation. 

Last year, Sussex County producers processed more than 200 million chickens.

And, with a growing poultry industry, Delaware corn growers cannot meet the demand, which forces poultry producers to import grain from other states.

"We simply cannot grow enough to meet the needs of the poultry industry," Baxter said. 

Perdue, the region's largest poultry producer, buys most of its corn locally — but not all.

"We do have some Midwest corn coming in because we can't rely solely on local crops," said John Ade, Perdue senior vice president. 

The Hopkins farm, Delaware's largest dairy operation, grows all its own feed and stores the corn in three huge blue Harveststore silos on the property.

This year's record corn crop has brought two unexpected outcomes for the Hopkins family: First, their silos will not hold the entire corn harvest. And, for the first time in recent history, they will have surplus corn to sell.

To resolve the storage issue, Hopkins is searching for farms nearby that have silo space for rent.

"It is a good problem to have," said Hopkins.

Though this year's corn crop may be a record, experts were concerned that the corn might have been affected by a summer heat wave.

"I was a little bit concerned because the heat came during pollination," Bounds said. "But, as it turned out, the heat didn't affect it."

Soybeans also are a major grain crop in Delmarva, though not all of the harvest is used to feed livestock, including chickens, pigs, dairy cows or cattle.

Perdue, a major buyer of soybeans, crushes them for oil then uses the remaining meal for chicken feed.

"The end use is oil and meal," Ade said.

While Perdue exports soybean oil, "all of our meal production goes to the poultry industry," said Ade.

A view of the corn silos at Hopkins Farm in Lewes.

Last year, Delaware had 163,000 acres of soybeans producing an average yield of 41.5 bushels per acre. The average cash price was about $9.90. 

This year, about 5,000 fewer acres will be in beans. State agriculture economists are predicting a slightly lower price per bushel.

In the case of both soybeans and corn, the market is incredibly complicated. Some farmers will commit to sell their harvest to one of the poultry producers. Others will put their grain in storage then sell it when prices are good. 

Then there is the commodities market where traders buy, sell or stockpile grain awaiting a competitive price. 

"The commercial side of this business is not that much different from running a bank," said Ade.

Local growers say the soybean harvest will not begin until October.