Yield, quality strong
for south Texas corn
T
By Joe Kelley
he 2016 crop in the Victoria area — actually all of south Texas — was strong on two fronts: yields and quality. The quality
of this year’s grain was excellent. The grain was dry coming
into the elevator so very little drying had to be done to the
grain. The Victoria area was probably a little more fortunate
than points farther east, as the rain gave way to clear skies, which aided
the drying process. Additionally, some area farmers opted to spray
the grain sorghum with Round-Up to assist in drying out the grain
sorghum. The overall result of these efforts was moisture levels in the
12 percent to 14 percent range which made for easy receiving and fast
turns. A number of the test weights for the Victoria area grain sorghum
came in the 60 lbs. to 62 lbs. range with even a few 63 lbs. test weights
captured. The overall grade on the grain sorghum was a strong U.S. #2,
with the majority of the crop enjoying a U.S. #1 grade.
The headline for yellow corn was the yield. A number of farmers
reported 140 to 150 bushel per acre yields on yellow corn. The other
headline was no aflatoxin on the vast majority of the yellow corn that
dumped across United Ag grain pits. In fact, in Victoria, I believe we
only had two or three trucks that exceeded 100 ppb. The vast majority of
the trucks that came into United Ag Port of Victoria were well below 20
ppb, which is the maximum level of aflatoxin allowed for export, human
consumption and dairy.
This year was truly a first for the quantity and quality of both of our
major grain crops. In fact, this year was the first year that UA POV
emptied out of grain sorghum before the end of harvest to make room
for yellow corn. The two 200,000 bushel tanks at UA POV are filled with
yellow corn.
The Corpus area had timely rains and strong grain sorghum yields as
well. One thing that the Corpus area and other points south saw was an
increase in yellow corn production. One cooperative south of Corpus
reported that the p