HARVEST TIME: AREA GRAIN-CROP YIELDS RUNNING ABOVE AVERAGE

Weather conditions have been pretty good for Southeast Missouri farmers this fall.

"Farmers have been in the fields and harvesting of grain is beginning to wind down," said Terry Birk of the Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Service office at Jackson. "Although harvest time is behind a year ago, we're running well above average on yields of all grain crops this fall."

Birk said some corn has yielded 240 bushels an acre and soybeans 60 bushels an acre.

Early cotton harvests in the Bootheel area of Missouri were slowed by rains last week but have shown good early production figures, said Dave Albers, state Extension cotton specialist from the University of Missouri Delta Center at Portageville. "We're seeing cotton yields of two to two and a half bales an acre," he said.

Birk said that corn harvesting in Cape County was over 85 percent complete.

"Lots of fields in the county are producing 120 to 130 bushels of corn an acre," said Birk. "But 240 bushels an acre have been reported in the southern part of the county from irrigated fields."

Statewide, corn production is up about 31 percent and is nearing the record yield of 116 bushels an acre established in 1986. Corn production in the state is expected to be about 280 million bushels, with yields expected to average 119 bushels per acre.

The corn harvest, about two weeks behind the five-year average, is about 40 percent complete in the state, according to the Missouri Agriculture Statistics Service headquartered in Columbia. It reports harvesting ranges from 20 to 25 percent complete in the northern areas to 60 percent in the central districts and up to 97 percent in the southeast district.

Soybean yields in the southeast area have also been good, said Birk.

"Thirty to 35 bushels an acre are good yields," said Birk. "We're hearing reports of 68 bushels an acre on down, with the harvest about 65 percent complete in Cape County."

Statewide, Missouri soybean production is expected to be up about 7 percent over a year ago, with the latest forecasts calling for 145 million bushels.

"That all figures out to an average of 34 bushels an acre," said Birk. "Those figures are about 3.5 bushels per acre above the 1991 yields, and would be the second highest on record in Missouri."

Birk said that milo production was also up. "We don't have the figures compiled," he said. "But milo is showing good yields.

Overall it looks like a good year for farmers," said Birk. "The only bad thing is that prices are down. But we're fortunate to share in the good yields."

Dry weather spells have especially been an asset to the cotton farmers.

"We had several days of dry weather, which helped in the boll-opening process," said Albers. "We're about a week behind last year's crop but we're right on target with the five-year average. Cotton conditions have been estimated at 68 percent good."

Missouri cotton production is forecast at more than 500,000 bales up 17 percent over last year with the majority of the state's cotton in Southeast Missouri.

"About 50 percent of our cotton has been harvested," said Albers. "Farmers started picking about Oct. 8, and had several good days before the area received some rain last week."

Rain in the southern part of the Bootheel was light, and some farmers returned to the fields Saturday. "But in the northern area farmers were hoping to get back in the fields Tuesday," said Albers.

"We had barely started picking in Scott County before the rains came," said Kenneth Vowels of the ASCS office in Benton. "The cotton crop looks pretty good but we haven't picked enough to make a forecast."

Albers said the cotton crop looked good in the Bootheel but a lot depends on the weather now.

"The rains last week certainly didn't do the cotton any good," he said. "At this stage it reduces the grade of the cotton. The quality of the cotton suffers."

With the cotton harvest in full swing many travelers along Interstate 55 are observing many modules of cotton at the end of cotton fields.

A lot of farmers are going the module route, said Albers. Farmers can put from 10 to 15 bails in a module, and they remain stored for a long period of time.

"But there's still a lot of cotton farmers taking cotton to gin in trailers," Albers said. "This is the third year that area farmers have used modules."

The modules are 32 feet long and 10 feet wide. The height depends on whether a farmer puts 10 bales, 12 bales, or 15 bales into the module.

Gins pick up the modules and transport them to the gin.

"Farmers have to watch the temperature of cotton in the modules," said Albers. "Cotton heats up and it gets too hot. This can hamper the quality of the cotton, and in some rare cases can cause a fire in the module."