Record corn harvest has farmers scrambling to deliver and store it all

Last year, the growth of the ethanol industry doubled the price of corn. In response, many farmers added corn acreage to cash in on the "liquid gold" of ethanol, and now the United States is expecting a record harvest. The haul will strain storage options and that has farmers worried some corn will spoil before it can be delivered, reports Sarah McCammon of NET Radio in Nebraska.

In short, there just may not be enough storage bins, trucks or trains to handle the harvest in some areas. That means excess corn will "be left on the ground" in temporary storage until room is available somewhere else. Outside of permanent storage, the corn is subject to changes in weather that could make it worthless. To listen to the short radio report on farmers working overtime to prevent that, via National Public Radio, go here.

In a related story, Delta Farm Press reports on the already long waits at grain elevators around the Mid-South. The sometime five-hour delays are due to a bottleneck created by the "triple whammy of high soybean yields, more corn acres and a low river during peak harvest." If an elevator ships by barge, a lower river level means fewer bushels can be loaded onto a barge before it reaches its limit. That creates a domino effect that has some farmers waiting hours outside grain elevators in Mississippi.