Leflore County farmers are pushing to finish the 2011 corn crop and are beginning soybean harvesting.
“Corn harvest is going full blast,” said Jerry Singleton, an agent with the Leflore County Extension Service.
He estimated that between 50 and 75 percent of the county’s corn crop has already been harvested.
While the harvest has been going smoothly, Singleton said, yields have been “all over the board.” He is expecting an average crop year.
Farmers said their corn harvests were moving along.
“It’s going good. We ought to get through cutting corn tomorrow. That ought to be a big relief,” said farmer Chris Bush.
Bush said the next crop will be either soybeans or cotton.
“I’m hoping to defoliate in a couple of weeks,” he said.
Stephen Pillow said his family’s corn harvest is about half completed.
“It’s an average year. We’ve hit some really good corn and some that wasn’t so good. A lot of it has to do with corn varieties,” he said.
Pillow said they’ve just started harvesting soybeans. Full-time harvesting will begin in two weeks.
Singleton said soybeans have been plagued with infestations of boll worms and soybean loopers, which “have been giving farmers fits.”
“We’re going to have a big insecticide bill,” which is typically paid once harvesting is completed, he said.
“The beans that are still green, we are spraying every week to 10 days. It’s probably the biggest threat we’ve ever seen,” Pillow said.
Singleton said cotton plants are also experiencing bacterial blight.
In the fields that Singleton has surveyed, the blight won’t likely reduce yields from the plants, he said.
Soybean harvesting is expected to really start around mid-September. Cotton harvesting is on track for the first week of October.
Cotton plants have reached maturity, so their water requirements will diminish from here on out, Singleton said.
• Contact Bob Darden at bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
