Connie’s Comments by Connie Strunk, Turner County Extension Educator—Agronomy  October 23, 2009

            Halloween preparations are right around the corner in my house.  My son, Benjamin, wants to be Diego while my daughter, Ada, still has not made up her mind.  One day she says she wants to be a bumble bee, the next day she wants to be a princess, and then the next day she wants to be a witch.  If the thought of Halloween is not scary enough many are faced with the thought of when and whether or not they will get their crops harvested before we receive snow that will actually stick around. 

The weather and harvesting have certainly been on many producers minds lately.  Who would have thought that it would be almost November before we see soybean harvest really start let alone being completed?  This rainy, cold weather has people thinking a lot about drying corn (I have yet to hear anyone with corn moisture below 30 %) and wondering about mold and mycotoxin levels.

             South Dakota State University (SDSU) is/will be conducting a mycotoxin survey for testing in each county here in South Dakota.  They are currently looking for 3 to 5 producers from each county to provide about 5 pounds or 1 gallon Ziploc bag sample of harvested corn which they will check for mycotoxins.  There is no cost for this survey and if you contact me, I can even come and collect the sample from you to send up to SDSU.  SDSU has reported that there is some interesting stuff happening with mycotoxins currently so they would really like to monitor and check for the mycotoxin levels this year.  With all the moisture that we have received they are very curious about what is happening.   

For more information or if you are interested in participating in this survey please feel free to contact me at 297-3112 or send me an email at connie.strunk@sdstate.edu.  I hope everyone can have a safe and bountiful harvest.