Corn quality

Growing corn has been anything but easy this year A late spring delayed planting Now wet fields are delaying harvest Ag Reporter Sarah Gustin checks in on the quality of this year s corn crop It s December and much of this year s corn is stil in the field Steve Hepper Hubbard Feeds Manager We are going to have to see the corn dried down before it comes in to our feed plant A wetter and cooler than average October made it tough for corn to dry down in the fields Hubbard Feeds Manager Steve Hepper says moisture levels have been anywhere from 15 to 23 percent He says right now the elevator is not accpeting anything over 16 and a half percent Sarah Gustin KX News Lately the driveway has been sitting empty Hepper says he has only dumped 30 to 25 thousand bushels so far he is hoping to take on a few hundred thousand more before the season is over Steve Hepper Hubbard Feeds Manager Biggest reason why we don t take high moisture corn is we don t have a grain dryer system and then also for us to ship we have to be under 17 moisture to go to ethanol plants and also for the feed plant we have to be at a maximum of 13 5 moisture to go to our feed plants And wet corn isn t the only problem rising to the surface Steve Hepper Hubbard Feeds Manager Mold has not been a discount But the biggest problem that we are looking at is making sure that it doesn t have the mycotoxins in there to make their grain toxic to cattle or livestock Hepper says on the loads that have come in they have been seeing surface mold He says he has sent at least a half dozen samples to the lab all have come back negative for mycotoxins Steve Hepper Hubbard Feeds Manager It gets to the point where yes you do have to reject it with large amounts of mold Too much mold doesn t work well in feeds either so we have to be selective on the mold count and usuall when you see alot of mold it is light tet weight late corn and it s just not going to make grade even for ethanol plants Hepper says ethanol plants are worried about mycotoxins being passed through the distillers to livestock He says ethanol plants have been testing and they have been finding alot of negative on mycotoxins as well In Bismarck for KX News I am Sarah Gustin Hepper says so far test weights have been between 53 to 57 pounds