PEORIA — After a long, drawn-out season of growing corn in 2009, central Illinois farmers may not yet be out of the woods. Since much of the corn picked last year - and even some picked this year - was wetter than normal, concerns are mounting over the condition of that grain. "Last fall, we all knew it was harvested wet. It didn't dry down in the field as it should have," said Kim Craig, merchandiser for the Bell Enterprises grain elevator in Deer Creek. "We all knew that there were going to be issues when we warm the grain back up."
Ideally, stored corn should retain no more than 15 percent moisture. Corn that doesn't dry down completely when it's stored is vulnerable to disease and contamination, said Patrick Kirchhofer, manager of the Peoria County Farm Bureau. "It's more likely to keep better in the cold weather. The fear is that when it warms up, there could be spoilage," he said. "Were there wet spots in the grain stored in farmers' bins? Farmers won't know until they start taking it out," said Kirchhofer.
Craig Shepherd, a market advisor for Peoria-based Water Street Solutions, a marketing firm specializing in agricultural operations, said the condition of some of the stored corn in Illinois "could be a disaster." "I've already heard some early horror stories on grain quality," he said.
Farmers are being urged to check for contaminated corn this year, said Mike Hutjens, University of Illinois Extension dairy specialist. Recent lab tests of Midwest grain found evidence of mycotoxins in more than three-quarters of the samples, he said. Mycotoxins are substances produced by fungi that, in high enough concentrations, can cause health problems in animals and humans.
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