This Year Could Be One Of The Best Hauls On Record
LEELANAU COUNTY -- "It's an all around really good year for growing corn," said Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator Robert Sirrine.
It's almost harvest time for local corn growers, and this year could be one of the best hauls on record.
Last year was terrible for corn growers and they blame it on too much rain.
This year things are looking up. Some farmers will end up with almost double the crop compared to last year. That means extra work, but also bigger profits.
It's that time of year again. Corn growers are busy in their fields getting ready for the harvest.
This year is bringing more work for corn growers, but that's a good thing. Sirrine says last year was absolutely terrible for corn production because of all the rain.
"Basically there wasn't enough time to dry the corn out and so a lot of farmers ended up just leaving it in the field because it's pretty much cost-prohibitive to take it out of the field and dry it manually," said Sirrine.
Sirrine says a good year is 120 bushels of corn per acre. Last year corn growers produced an average of 100 bushels. This year the minimum amount is 125 to 150. But some growers can get up to 175 or even 200 bushels this harvest -- that's almost double. That's leaving corn growers working 16 to 17 hours a day, seven days a week.
"It takes us a month to get through it because a couple of guys are hauling corn, and somebody is chopping stalks so we stay pretty busy through September all the way through the end of October," said Leelanau County corn grower David Noonan.
David Noonan and his family have been farmers and corn growers in southern Leelanau County since 1917.
Noonan says with the drought in July, they weren't sure how the corn was going to turn out this year.
"The drought held us back and the stalk started to burn up a little bit, but these last few rains really brought it on and we're going to have a nice corn crop," said Noonan. "It's going to turn out ok."
Noonan says since spring started earlier, they're about two weeks ahead of schedule on their sweet corn and the quality is better than ever.
"The sweetness is right up there. On a scale of 10 it's at a nine," said Sirrine.
Sirrine says the entire region is doing well, not just Leelanau County. He says they will know in a couple of weeks just how successful the harvest will be, but knows it's already one of the best years yet.
