Corn in the way of trails

[440_chazz]

My local snowmobile club in Hartford just completed signing trails. There is still a lot of corn standing because it is so wet from the rains. It is likely that corn will stay standing until spring. Even though our trail system had corn cut down there is still a lot of other clubs that will have corn in their way for trails. I was up in Wausau too for Thanksgiving and noticed there is still corn standing. I wonder if in some places trails will not go through because of standing corn.

[doonegade]

TOO BAD JOHN DEERE DOESN'T MAKE SLEDS ANYMORE!!

[whitedust]

Maybe they can get corn out if ground freezes & no snow.

[indy_500]

i marked with my club 3 weekends ago and ran into a ton of corn fields still standing. the corn fields that were in our way then are still standing.

[thebluff]

come north!!! not much corn conflict here in the west yoop!

[renegade]

It is not he ground that is too wet it is the corn itself. Can't combine til the corn is under 30% or so and then you have to spend big bucks to dry it so the wait is on. However, it the last 3 weeks in our neck of the woods, it went from worry about the corn molding to combines running 24/7. Things look alot better around here than just 5 days ago. Haven't heard where the moisture level is running though, but the dryers are running!

[rocky367]

I'd agree with renegade, we are waiting on the corn to be picked especially since we have alot of our trailwork running across fields. Some farmers have been nice and cut a trail in some areas for us but we are waiting. Went past the local coop the other day and it was busy with trucks coming and going and the dryers were blowing steam good.

[indy_500]

one of the farmers that owns half the fields in my town HAS his own dryer. so i still don't get it

[whitedust]

Indy money money money. Costs to run that dryer.

[bpsledder]

Even if you have your own dryer, the dryer and wet storage capacity could be an issue. My family can combine at least 4 times more corn than the dryer can dry in an hour.

[art1]

Problems with crops in the way will depend on what the month of December does in the weather department. If the snows wait for a few weeks I bet most of the corn will be out and trails will be alright. If winter settles in early though I really think the trail system will be in trouble. Clubs can only re-route trails so much. Trails don't open until the Dec 14th anyway...

[indy_500]

i guess we'll have to just jump over the corn fields
http://www.johndee.com/discuss/messages/5/121263.jpg

[mikexcr8]

moisture content is starting to finally fall below 24 percent which ideal with some drying. problem is that all dryers in the state are full with still corn in the feilds yet. cost of drying is out ragoues. farmers are taking the risk that if it stays up all winter with a good freeze there is some to very little hope it will be good still come spring. but if they pick it now it wont keep in the bins. meaning it will rot the bin inside out and thousands of bushels of corn will be wasted. another thing people havnt thought of. majority of the corn goes down mississppii river just before it freezes. if river freezes before then... the cost to ship just jumped alot by using railroad carts. last... lots of mold in this years corn. we havnt paid for this cool summer yet. all i got to say is good luck to farmers.

[25lieb]

I just did some marking here in NW IL and we have corn that is in the way, and some winter wheat. We can get around most of the corn, but not sure what we are going to do with the wheat. might have to get permission to go one field over. It was still pretty wet in a lot of places here on saturday, hopefully with it being dry the last few days that will help.

[indy_500]

2 of the 4 remaining fields in the way of green knights trails were cut or are in the process of being cut. i don't know about the other 2 but when i went past today, both fields were being cut! we're supposed to mark again this weekend so they're just in time!

[440_chazz]

It looks pretty much impossible now to get the corn off until spring. How do you combine corn in 12 inches + of snow?

[phil4snow]

with snow drifts up to the tassels...yup spring it is.

[art1]

As much as I hate to think about it...we could get a big warm up or rain event followed by colder weather to freeze things up. That would let combines back into the field to finish up harvest. If that doesn't happen it will definately be spring before the corn is harvested.