FLORENCE, Ala. (AP) — Corn farmers in northern Alabama are seeing some good yields in this year’s harvest, agriculture experts said.
Yields will depend on where the cornfields are located, according to Extension Service coordinators in Colbert and Lauderdale counties.
Farmers have been out in the fields harvesting for several weeks while the weather has been dry, The TimesDaily reported.
Elevators are full — a sign of a good year with high yields, Colbert County Extension Coordinator Danny McWilliams said.
McWilliams says farmers are reporting yields of 170 to 200 bushels per acre.
“I think overall the crop has been very good,” McWilliams said.
Some farmers are nearing 300 bushels per acre, said Dealona Bozeman, the grain originator at the Alabama Farmers Co-op in Florence.
Farmers with the best crops got the rainfall they needed in June and July following a dry spell in May, Lauderdale County Extension Coordinator Heidi Tilenius said.
Not every farmer is happy with what they’re seeing, at least so far. Among them is Buster Thornton, who along with his sons owns Thornton Family Farms in eastern Lauderdale County.
“We’re in the process of harvesting now, and this has been the worst year I’ve ever farmed in terms of my corn crops,” Thornton said. “It was wet all spring, then dry through the summer. Amazingly, some of the crops yielded pretty good, in certain parts.”
Farmers have been working 12-hour days trying to get their crops out of the field while the weather is conducive, Tilenius said.
Most of the corn grown in the Shoals is sold to poultry feed manufacturers, officials said.