Late planting and cooler weather caused a late harvest in DeKalb County.

The nuts and bolts of a corn harvest have to do with moisture and storage; if the corn is too moist, it will spoil in the storage bins.

“High moisture content in the kernel means corn is a little wetter than [farmers] would like to harvest at,” said Mariam Wassmann, director of information for the DeKalb County Farm Bureau. “Ideally, farmers like to harvest when it’s around 20 percent moisture.”

The most recent harvest report from the bureau shows DeKalb County’s corn as having a moisture content of about 23 to 25 percent.

Corn is dried naturally by the sun during the summer.

“This summer we didn’t have any really normal heating days to mature the crop,” said Larry Thomas, member of the Farm Bureau Board of Directors.

That, in part, may be due to late planting.

“Planting got started late [this year] because of the very cool and very wet spring that we had,” said NIU staff meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste.

The combination of the late planting in the spring and cool summer temperatures is the cause of the late harvest, Thomas said.

Farmers wait until the corn has a low enough moisture content before harvesting rather than harvesting wet and using a drying device.

“The only way to dry corn is by using heat from natural gas which is very expensive,” Thomas said.

In 2007, the Illinois Agriculture Statistics Service estimated there were 246,500 acres of corn, along with 78,600 acres of soy beans, harvested in DeKalb County. The two crops are the majority of what is harvested in DeKalb County, and were worth $240.6 million in revenue for local farmers.

Consumers should not expect to see an increase in food costs due to the late harvest.

Typical during harvest season, commodity prices are low because supply is up, so a late harvest should not affect food costs, Wassmann said.

This week, farmers should expect dry days until late Friday night, when two systems will move in and cause rain through Sunday, Sebenste said.