Unshucked, Episode 1: Harvest Heat and Baby Raccoons with Pervis Ellis

In the debut episode of IL Corn TV: Unshucked, Tara catches up with Pervis Ellis, District 15 director, mid-harvest on 9/4 on his farm near Harrisburg in southern Illinois. Pervis is about two weeks into harvest, working in triple-digit heat (the cab read 96°F, with field temps closer to 104°F), and pulling soybeans back out of the field before returning to corn — running around 23% moisture, trending down to 17–18%.

The conversation moves into "Unshucked" territory with rapid-fire, offbeat questions: Pervis names his combine "George" (after George Washington, since he shares a February 22 birthday), prefers quiet in the cab early in the day before switching to Pandora for Western swing music, and would bring Dolly Parton out to the farm if he could pick anyone. His strangest field finds include a small LP tank stuck in the field and more recently a litter of baby raccoons that had nested in the combine, which he safely relocated.

On the production side, Pervis talks through his farm's shift away from fall tillage toward more no-till and minimum-till practices over the past 2–3 years, plus a growing canola trial on his hill ground (replacing wheat) that performed well enough to repeat this year. He also notes that all of his corn is white corn, grown specifically for human consumption destined for Mexico, where a group of buyers is expected to visit his farm next month to learn more about the production process.