Soybean producers are running out of storage options
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
The USDA should help soybean farmers facing storage issues, a Congressman says.
Dr. Ralph Abraham, who represents Louisiana’s 5th congressional district, wrote a letter to Sonny Perdue asking the agriculture department to help soybean farmers who are producing high yields but are left with limited storage options.
Elevators have told some Louisiana soybean producers that, unless the grain was previously booked or “are of uncommonly superior quality,” they will not accept the crop, the Oct. 2 letter says.
“The practical effect of this policy is that farmers must choose between harvesting soybeans with no place to bring them, or letting them rot in the fields,” Abraham wrote in the letter.
Producers agree that soybean storage has been a challenge. But some have taken the necessary steps to ensure their beans can be harvested.
“I’ve been hearing that some farmers don’t have enough space for their beans,” Raymond Schexnayder, a producer from Ventress, La., told Farms.com. “We invested in on-farm storage last year to combat this kind of thing. But with the way it looks with a possible record crop and slower trade, everyone’s full.”
Soybean producers in other parts of the country may also face storage issues.
Iowa farmers have harvested about 15 percent of the state’s crop, the USDA’s Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin says.
But growers appear to be preparing alternative storage options.
“Storage could be an issue once everything wraps up, but we might not know until then,” Bill Shipley, a producer from Nodaway, Iowa, told Farms.com. “I know some people have bought those large grain bags to store crops if the elevators and other storage methods aren’t available.”