Page 9 - Logan County Farm Outlook - Spring 2013

2013 LOGAN COUNTY FARM OUTLOOK MAGAZINE. LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com March 21, 2013
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Bauer said.
Bauer said he had loads come in to the
elevator with aflatoxin levels between 3
ppb and 500 ppb.
Although it was legalized in Illinois to
blend affected loads with
clean grain, Hartsburg
Grain did not do any of
that kind of blending.
“You have to be certified
by the FDA to do that
kind of blending,” Bauer
said, and they instead
sought other ways to
remedy the aflatoxin
problem and bring the producer some
level of income.
Loads that came in infected with
aflatoxingot discountedbasedonquality
and purity. Loads with high amounts
of aflatoxin were not brought into the
elevator, but were instead trucked
directly to cattle operations at a deep
discount or hauled to grain terminals
accepting corn with aflatoxin levels
higher than the cattle operations would
accept. Bauer said they found enough
“outside-the-box” solutions for aflatoxin-
infected corn that they did not have to
deal with any grain salvage operations,
which would give them pennies on the
dollar for aflatoxin-affected corn.
Bauer said that while the crisis is
over for the non-insured producers who
brought their product to
town and sold it off for a
discounted amount, thus
suffering a one-time loss,
the elevator continues to
suffer. There is the lack of
corn coming to town from
on-farm storage, the lack
of product transportation,
and the lack of elevator
storage in a normal production year just
isn’t there this year. “The only corn we
have in the bins today belongs to the
elevator, and we are waiting for the right
time to sell it off to make a profit,” he
said.
Uninsured producers were injured
by the 2012 drought, and so were
elevators. It is also widely accepted that
since the 2012 crop didn’t adequately
tax the fertilizer values present in the
soil, chemical and fertilizer applicator
companies like FS and Beason Ag
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