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A mountain of Arkansas corn
Arkansas When you run out of room in your grain storage bins, where do you put 700,000 bushels of corn? The answer is you start piling it on the ground, and that's what a grain company is doing in Parkdale (Ashley County). Gus Wilson, county agent with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, was making a farm visit recently when he spotted a mountain of corn growing beside bins at Bayou Grain Co. He snapped several photos of the growing pile. Wilson said Ashley County, like many counties in Arkansas and across the country, has increased corn production in response to higher market prices. Much of the extra corn is being used for ethanol production. Arkansas farmers planted 560,000 acres of corn in 2007 compared to 190,000 acres last year, according to the Arkansas Agricultural Statistics Service. Wilson said Ashley County farmers increased corn acreage nearly six fold from about 3,000 in 2006 to almost 18,000 this year, while cotton and rice acreage decreased. "With the increase in corn acreage in Ashley County, we just don't have the storage capacity to handle this much grain," Wilson said. In response, Bayou Grain set up a temporary facility on the ground with walls. Farmers' grain trucks pull up and transfer their grain to an auger which shoots the grain onto the pile. This leaves drivers free to return to the fields for more grain. Ron Miller, company manager, said Friday the temporary storage corn pod can hold about 700,000 bushels. He said the pod has accumulated about 570,000 bushels since Aug. 7, and the company has set up a second pod to collect grain from its customers in Louisiana and Ashley and Chicot counties. The company will store about 2 million bushels of corn in its bins and 1.4 million bushels on the ground. In bad weather, workers will cover the corn with tarps and use a system of fans and pipes to hold the tarps down and protect the corn, according to Miller. "The corn acreage down here has multiplied tremendously," Miller said. "We have elevators here and in Eudora, and they're running wide open. The corn yields are fantastic. Some farmers are making over 200 bushels per acre." Miller estimates the harvest in his area is about 60 percent complete. Wilson said if corn prices remain high, "I think we'll raise this much, if not more, corn next year." For more information about corn production, contact your county extension agent or visit www.uaex.edu and select Agriculture, then Corn. The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the U of A Division of Agriculture. Date: 8/24/07
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