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Illinois farmer working up against harvest deadlines

Many farmers are up against the clock this harvest, but an Illinois farmer has an extra deadline to meet. Brownfield tagged along with him as he was harvesting corn on Tuesday.

Elliot Uphoff says 2019 will be a year he won’t forget, and not just because of delayed harvest.

“I am trying to get everything done before November 6^th because I’ve got a baby coming along. So, I’ve got more things to focus on later in the fall.”

He tells Brownfield he is happy with the yields he is seeing from his June planted crops; 50 to 60 bushels per acre for soybeans and corn ranging from 145 to 230.

He says wet spots are bringing the corn yield average down and corn moisture is much higher than he prefers.

“The corn I am harvesting today is 26% moisture. It is all going to the dryer, we cannot afford to take it to the elevator. Our dryer is definitely going to get a workout this fall.”

Uphoff says they began harvest about 3 weeks behind and have not been able to catch up. He says with cooperative weather they might get most of harvest done by his November 6th deadline, but there will still be a lot of fieldwork left to do.