What is the value of a timely harvest?

As most commercial producers know the timeliness of harvest is extremely important from both a fiscal and quality of product standpoint.

The examples below demonstrate some real life experiences representing grain harvests. The same principles are even more appropriate for perishable crops.

The value of harvesting wheat at an average 12.5% moisture as opposed to 11% moisture for 500acres x 40 bushels/acre x $3/bu will result in an additional $900 for the crop.

The simple moisture example above is nothing compared with lost to the intrinsic quality values of test weigh, protein levels, and spout damage that can occur from a delayed wheat harvest.

More than once in I have finished harvesting a neighbor's wheat the day before a hail storm would have totally destroyed it. And hail storms are rare in Northern North Carolina compared with a lot of other growing areas. A real life experience of harvest lost occurred in 1985 with our soybean crop. I had a chance to rent additional acreage to plant soybeans. Checked with a local custom harvester in my area before planting and received an assurance that he would help with the harvest before planting the crop. We started harvesting about mid October and the local custom harvester could not start until later due to prior commitments and downtime. With a JD 7720 4WD equipped with the largest tires available, wet ground had not been a factor at harvest for many years. In November that year it rained a record 11 inches in my area of the state. Fields that were yielding 35 plus bushels per acre were yielding 25 bushels or less after all the rain. The local custom harvester did not arrive until December 2. The damage was done. To shorten the story we finished January 26. The 800 acres still in the field when the rains started resulted in at least $40,000 less bushels not counting the additional tens of thousands in crop damage to the soybeans in the bin. Basically I lost the value of a combine with just that one crop of 800 acres. I am sure many of you have had similar experiences. Ron Day rday@CustomHarvesters.com 336.855.8526

One reason for creating CustomHarvesters.com is to help facilitate the communication channel between custom harvesters and producers not only in locating each other but to have the crop information posted with projected moisture and harvest date to fine tune the scheduling to maximize the financial returns to both the producer and harvester.

Planning a timely harvest assures our customers the best quality product available.

• Any crop, location, etc.
• Any harvest date, moisture, etc.
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Please contact us to include any features that would assist you in scheduling the harvesting and/or matching harvesters to crops to be harvested.