A fall from a combine in the farm shop … compound fracture of one ankle, torn ligaments in the other knee, out for the season. Two farmers run over by tractors, both still alive but not able to help any more with harvest, maybe permanently disabled. Hand severed in corn head, enough said. Grain cart rear-ended by a pickup truck, both tractor and truck drivers injured. All occurred in this part of Ohio; and within the past two weeks. Unfortunately, some of those folks may read this column and recognize the description of the accidents. For that, I apologize. However, utilizing such incidents is necessary to shock other farmers and the general population into realizing that farming can be, and often is a dangerous business.

Hindsight is often 20/20, and we say that “they” should have done this or that to avoid such tragic accidents. If you read the safety section of this article and cannot think back to any similar situations that you may have only been a fraction of a second from injury or worse, my guess is you are not only very careful, but either extremely lucky or dishonest with yourself.

We may as well face facts. The harvest season has not done us many favors, and the forecast is not very favorable. We do know, if an accident like those described in the first paragraph happens to us or those who work with us, the harvest will drag on even longer.
For your own health, for your family, to ensure the viability of your farm – please review your safety procedures and look for opportunities to improve them.

Weight shrink
The importance of shrink calculations increases with higher moisture and higher prices. The market targets are normally 15 percent for corn and 13 percent for soybeans which leads to 1.17 and 1.15 percent shrink per point respectively. Any additional deduction in the market shrink calculation is an allowance for material handling losses.

For example, a corn shrink of 1.4 percent per point gives about 0.22 percent per point for handling loss. Typically, a commercial elevator experiences about 1 percent overall handling loss and a good farm system about 0.5 percent overall handling loss. This does not include weight loss from spoilage if grain goes out of condition. About 0.5 percent of the weight is lost for every three percentage points increase (e.g. from 3-6 percent) in damage.
Test weight is a good indicator of corn storability. Corn that is below 54 pound per bushel after drying should not be stored into warm weather and should be dried to less than 15 percent moisture before long term storage.  Keep in mind that lighter corn also will break more in handling, and each time it is moved.

Corn normally gains about 0.25 pounds per bushel per percent of moisture removed, more with low temperature drying and less if corn temperatures exceed 150 degrees Fahrenheit. We are also learning that corn that has reached 150 Fahrenheit or more in drying is more difficult to ferment in ethanol plants. However, corn with test weights below 50 pounds per bushel ( I certainly hope we do not see any of this!) often increases test weight at a reduced rate, progressively less down to 45 pounds per bushel. where there may be no increase in test weight at all.

A number of farmers have said this may be the most challenging harvest since 1992. If that is the case, think of how many younger farmers have never experienced these conditions.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Roger Bender may write to him in care of this publication.