Daily Staff Writer

SULLY, Iowa — While farmers are harvesting another bountiful crop, grain elevators around the state are struggling to keep up with the flood of commodities being hauled to their town.

In central Iowa, farmers in Sully had harvested about one-third of their corn and three-fourths of their soybeans last week.

Thousands of acres had yet to be combined, but storage structures at the Sully Cooperative Exchange were filling fast.

Jim Magnuson, general manager of the farmer-owned cooperative, was optimistic that he would find somewhere to put the crops yet to be harvested. But with the harvest showing no sign of letting up, he and his crew at the co-op had their hands full.

Six months ago, grain traders had predicted mountains of grain would be stored on the ground this fall because of large amounts of last year’s corn and soybeans still in storage and because of the large number of acres to be planted this year.

Supplies of both commodities were far above year-ago levels when this year’s harvest began. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

— About 37 percent more corn and 74 percent more soybeans were in storage across the country on Sept. 1 than at the same time a year earlier.

— In Iowa, grain in storage of all types was up 54 percent, and grain in off-farm storage increased 83 percent. Meanwhile, soybeans stored off the farm increased 94 percent.

— Conditions were clearly worse in Iowa than most places. The state typically produces about 20 percent of the nation’s corn and soybeans, but Iowa accounted for almost one-third of the additional 489 million bushels of old-crop corn on hand as of Sept. 1.

In the mid-’80s, the Sully co-op built a flat storage structure that can hold 660,000 bushels of corn. This year, it added 600,000 bushels of storage space at its Newton facility, as well as equipment to store crops on the ground at three of its six sites.

In Prairie City, Farmers Cooperative Exchange also is being squeezed.

“We will be putting corn on the ground shortly,” Rich Bishop, the co-op’s grain merchandiser said early last week.

At most Iowa elevators, the real crunch hasn’t hit.

If the weather holds, many believe it will come this week with millions of bushels of corn going on the ground.

Space is so tight, some elevator managers are considering putting soybeans on the ground — a rarity because soybeans are more susceptible to deterioration than corn when left outdoors. Some elevators in northwest Iowa have reportedly already done so.

“Beans are our real challenge right now,” Magnuson said.

By week’s end, the Sully co-op had poured some soybeans on the ground — a first for the company.

“Our goal is to take the grain when the farmers have it delivered, and we can’t do that when we’re shut down,” Magnuson said.