2002 harvest is in full swing years ago
Farmers, co-ops reporting average weights, yields
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
With temperatures soaring into the mid- 90s last week and the rain clouds finally held at bay, Marion County farmers rolled out the combines for this year's wheat harvest.
Marvin Ratzlaff, who lives north of Hillsboro, started cutting his wheat last Thursday.
He estimates that he'll continue cutting through the end of this week, since it's just he and his wife working the harvest — he drives the combine, and she drives the truck.
"We're doing it all ourselves," Ratzlaff said. Also, his seed-selling business hasn't allowed him any uninterrupted time in the fields.
But the yields are better than he expected, Ratzlaff said. Test weights are coming in at 59 to 61 pounds.
Overall, the quality of the grain is fair, he said.
And he should know — Ratzlaff has been doing this all his life. He started working the harvest as a teen-ager, and now he's in his 70s.
He'll take whatever God blesses his fields with, he said.
"We're happy with whatever we get," Ratzlaff said.
Kevin Suderman of Cooperative Grain and Supply also says that the crops are better than he anticipated.
Yields have been 35 to 50 bushels an acre, and test weights have hovered around 58 to 61 pounds. The fields have been dry enough to eliminate most moisture, he said.
Test cutting started last Wednesday, and by early this week, Suderman estimated that 30 percent of the county's wheat crops had been cut.
"A lot of guys will finish up at the end of the week," Suderman said.
But this year's crops are yielding a little bit less than previous harvests.
"We've had some awful good harvests the last few years," he said.
"It's a lot better than it could have been, considering the weather conditions."
Cooperative Grain and Supply has elevators in Lehigh, Hillsboro, Canada, and Marion.
Stan Utting of Agri-Producers in Tampa had similar numbers to report earlier this week.
His company has seen weights of 57 to 59 pounds — lighter than last year's harvest, Utting said.
Overall, the harvest results have been about what he expected, Utting said. Most farmers should be finished by the end of the week.
Agri-Producers has elevators in Durham, Tampa, and Lincolnville, with harvest houses in Ramona and Burdick.
