This season’s extraordinarily large corn harvest is daunting, but an assuredly lucrative endeavor for farmers and storage companies alike.

Already 80 percent full, Consolidated Grain and Barge is closing in on their Maple Park location’s maximum capacity.

“We’ll have to sell some corn just to create some space,” said Scott Johnson, Hintzsche Group Manager.

Ron Alms, senior agronomy manager at the Elburn Cooperative site on Meredith Road forecasted the location’s silos would be “110 to 120 percent full” by the end of the harvest.

“We’ll probably have some piled on the ground,” Alms said. “We had an excellent summer as far as moisture and whatnot. It looks like we’ll have one of best crops ever, which presents its own challenges.”

It is becoming increasingly common for farmers to store crops themselves, as opposed to selling it to elevator companies like the Elburn Co-op or CGB.

It’s a lot like holding stock,” Alms said. “The game is trying to find the optimum time when the [corn product] manufacturer needs grain so you can get the best selling price. It’s up to the farmer himself if he wants to store it or sell it and let somebody else have that risk; that chance of profit or loss.”

Whoever does hold the grain will have their pick of the litter for buyers: an Argo Corn Products processing plant in Bedford Park, an ethanol plant in Rochelle and railways and river terminals ready to ship continentally or overseas promise numerous outlets for those in possession of grain.

The burgeoning ethanol industry, promising a high demand for corn, was a significant factor in the extensive planting, which has delivered this exceptional crop.

But ethanol alone didn’t promote the yields farmers are experiencing. The growing season’s weather was such that corn matured ahead of schedule, drying out in the field. Grain, which might have 22 percent moisture content at harvest, was coming in to CGB Maple Park at 17 to 18 percent, according to Johnson.

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