Running out of harvest time
Wet weather has slowed down area harvests, and things are getting down to the wire, especially for soybeansBy Deb Gau
It's been quite a guessing game, area farmers said this week - head into the fields, or wait for the sun to come out?
"It's been a waiting game all summer," said Tracy area farmer Greg Lanoue. Lanoue said he had managed to get this year's soybeans harvested, but the weather didn't make it easy.
After almost two straight weeks of rain and clouds, area harvests are still running behind schedule. While some areas are farther along than others depending on summer moisture levels, University of Minnesota Extension agriculture educator Jodi DeJonge-Hughes said the biggest risk is for soybeans that may be too wet to harvest.
"Soybeans crack easily, their skins can peel" if not dry, DeJonge-Hughes said. On top of that, soybeans aren't typically put in dryers like corn.
"I've been getting a lot of calls about, 'How do I dry beans?'" Jonge-Hughes said.
Overall, Jonge-Hughes said areas that had a drier summer have made more harvest progress.
"I've heard that Marshall is actually farther along for soybean harvests, around 75 to 80 percent," she said. "But when you go farther north, (the percentage) goes down quickly, to about 35 to 40 percent."
Kevin Bucholz, manager of the Hendricks elevator, said bean harvests to the west of Marshall weren't looking good.
"It's awful slow. We're only about 30 percent done on beans," and corn is still running behind, Bucholz said. "We're drying beans now. We've never had to do that while I've been here.
"It's up in the air. Farmers are saying they don't know what to do anymore."
Aaron Coe, manager of the Wood Lake elevator, said soybean harvests were a little further along in the Wood Lake area.
"As far as progress goes, we're about 80 percent done in the immediate area," he said, but the remaining beans were still wet. Moisture was a big concern for corn and sugar beet crops, as well.
"The beet farmers are feeling pressure," Coe said. He said many fear the beets will be hard to harvest or ruined if things don't dry out soon.
In the Tracy area, some farmers said they were also further along in harvesting soybeans, but not corn.
"We just finished the beans on Wednesday. They're drying now," said Tracy area farmer Will Nelson. "It's a learning process. We've never done it ourselves."
Nelson said the whole harvest was a learning process this year - you'd never know if the weather would let up enough to get field work done.
"You learn to think on your feet," he said.
It wasn't really moisture that was the problem, Lanoue said, so much as the fact that the wet weather hadn't let up enough to dry the crops standing in the field.
"We were dry enough that the ground could absorb it. It's just that we haven't seen any sunshine to go with it," Lanoue said.
Coe and Bucholz said it will likely take either a dry spell or a freeze to get crops ready to harvest again.
"If we could have a 10-day window of mild temperatures and sunshine," Coe said, it would make a big difference.
If crops don't dry out soon, Nelson said there could be some serious repercussions. The longer crops stay in the fields, the less time there is to prepare for spring.
"There's the tillage. If it doesn't get done, that'll have an impact on yields next fall," Nelson said. The cost of drying soybeans and corn quickly adds up, too.
"It takes a lot of profit out of it," Nelson said.
Jonge-Hughes said the fall harvest has driven home a lesson in mixing maturities of crops. Some early-maturing corn is ready for drying by now, she said.
"It spreads out the risk a little bit," she said.
The rains of the past couple weeks weren't all negative, Lanoue said, especially in areas that got little over the summer.
"It'll be good for next spring. Without it, we'd almost be looking at laying stuff in dry dirt," he said. But at the same time, if the wet spell doesn't end, there will be trouble. "Winter will be here soon, and we won't be ready."
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JasonsStorm
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10-25-09 8:56 PM
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Got to feel sorry for the farmers this season.
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