Soybean quality deteriorates in heat

Heather Wright/The Independent

The soybean harvest is just about complete but the hot weather which led to a speedy harvest is also causing a few problems in Central Lambton.

Lambton’s largest crop is soybeans with almost half of the county’s 550,000 acres planted with the beans. Harvesters have been running night and day to bring in the crop under extremely warm conditions.

In Central Lambton, Kevin Marriott of the Grain Farmers’ of Ontario, says its changing the quality of the grain.

“It’s almost too much of a good thing because the moisture on the beans is down to as low as eight which means people are losing five per cent (of their yield) because of being too dry,” he said.

Marriott started combining Wednesday and watched as the moisture levels dropped from 15 to 13 to 11 by the time he was done Sunday. 

Once the grains moisture falls below 13, farmers are not paid for the grain. 

Marriott says depending on where people live and the rainfall, farmers are bringing in between 40 and 70 bushels per acre.

Marriott says Tuesday’s rain may be enough to increase the quality somewhat.

In southern Lambton, Seed Dealer and former Ontario president of the National Farmers Union, Emery Huszka says about 85 per cent of the soybean crop is in now with yields reaching up to 75 bushels per acre. 

“We’re very fortunate. We are quite blessed. We’ve got crops and good quality crops… as we go east of east of Woodstock, there’s some really tough situations,” he says. Most of eastern and central Ontario has suffered through a summer with little rain – near drought conditions. 

Both Marriott and Huszka say the corn crop is drying up quickly and it will likely be an early harvest this year. Huszka says some may complete the job before Halloween, when normally many continue corn harvest into late November and early December.

Huszka is “excited” about his corn crop. “I am not excited about the price,” he added.

“The weather is just something we deal with – government, the politics of the world, trade – that’s, the biggest hurdle we got,” he added pointing to trade problems with the US and China.