Ethanol plants and other buyers of corn are continuing to raise concerns about the quality of some of the grain coming out of farmers' bins this winter. The corn is wetter than usual and has more damaged kernels. If you are selling corn to ethanol plants, be aware they might not accept your corn if it doesn't meet their quality specifications.

Ray Jenkins, senior grain merchandiser for Cargill at Eddyville in southeast Iowa says that large processing plant is seeing more loads of corn coming in which are significantly higher in moisture content this February compared to a year ago.

"I've been checking our data on incoming corn for the first half of February 2009 and more of the corn does have a much higher moisture content," he says. "I was surprised to find that 13% of our in-bound corn is testing 17% or higher for grain moisture content. And 6% of the corn is running 18% and higher. A year ago only 2% of our in-bound corn was 17% moisture."

More stored corn is going out of condition

Charles Hurburgh, a grain quality expert at Iowa State University, has been warning farmers, elevators and grain processors about the need to take special steps to manage stored grain this winter to keep it from going out of condition. Corn was harvested wetter than normal last fall due to the late 2008 growing season and in many cases farmers didn't dry the corn down as low as they usually do - trying to save money on expensive energy costs for drying.

"We are dealing with a much different crop this year in terms of grain moisture," says Hurburgh. "With processors such as ethanol plants, damaged corn is a concern because it adversely affects the enzymes and the fermentation process.

Hurburgh says "Anyone with corn in storage should be checking those bins once a week. Mid to late February and into March is the time when the condition of stored corn can change quickly." If the grain is cool and shows no signs of discoloration, heating or odor - then the thing to do is maintain the cold temperature of the grain in the bin. Watch the temperatures carefully.

Should you go ahead and sell the corn?

"Once the temperature of the grain starts to rise, and you can't cool the grain down by using outside air because the weather is starting to warm up, then the grain will have to be warmed," says Hurburgh. "If it is wet, the grain will have to be dried. If you find hotspots or problems in your stored grain, I recommend not trying to hold it much longer. Instead, you should haul it to market."

While the best thing to do is to get the corn out of the bin, farmers don't want to do that because the market price isn't attractive enough for farmers right now.

"That's true," says Jenkins. "But you do need to have a quality crop to sell, especially to processors and ethanol markets where grain damage is such a concern. Even livestock feeders don't want to buy damaged corn. Farmers have to balance what their objectives are. If they are going to hold this corn into spring and summer, they are just going to have to get it dried down in these bins or risk it going out of condition and losing their opportunity to market it."

Some corn buyers are offering price incentives

Is he giving any incentive for farmers to move this wet corn to the Cargill plant at Eddyville now - if the grain has no damage yet? "Yes," says Jenkins, "and that incentive has a value of about 7 cents to 8 cents per bushel if the corn is of good quality and is between 15% to 17% moisture content."

There is a story circulating in Iowa that a unit trainload of corn was shipped to the southwest United States for livestock feed but was turned down and sent back to Iowa because of high moisture content and damaged kernels. That would be quite an expensive deal for the owner of the corn to absorb!