Harvest Delays Lead to Trucking Waivers
Posted: November 4, 2009
According to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, this year’s corn harvest is proceeding at “the slowest pace since at least the mid-1970′s, when National crop progress tables first appeared in the Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin.”
As of November 1, just 25 percent of the corn was harvested nationwide, which way beats the previous slowest harvest record of 44 percent at this time of year in 1992. Average harvest progress in the main corn producing area was between four and six percent, but North Dakota made no progress compared to the previous week - continuing to lag far behind with just two percent of the crop harvested. In a normal year, the harvest would be halfway done by now in that state. Nationwide, we should be over 70 percent complete at this point.
The delay is causing some states, like Missouri, to relax transportation regulations so farmers can get move more grain out of the fields faster once they get that window of opportunity to harvest. The Missouri Corn Growers Association (MCGA) reports that the Missouri Department of Transportation has issued an emergency declaration that allows farmers to run their loaded trucks at 10 percent above the maximum licensed weight limit.
The harvest is gearing back up in many areas this week with drier weather, but there are still lots of fields with standing water. Some little piece of good news in the latest report from USDA is that at least all the states, except North Dakota, are finally in the double digits with harvest progress.
Ethan Edwards Said,
November 5, 2009 @ 10:40 pm
The purpose of the weight limit is to limit damage to roads. Does anyone think that damage won’t happen just because the harvest is behind the usual timeline, and the bureaucrats have “waived” the limit?
At the very least, along with the waiver there should be an added road tax to provide a pot of money to repair the added damage the higher weights will cause.