Rain Puts Brakes on Fall Harvest
Published: Friday, October 29, 2021
Harvesting was at a possible record clip for many Indiana and Michigan farmers, but now they're crossing their fingers to be done before Thanksgiving.
Farmers were back in their fields after drying out from the heavy mid-October rains.
They were looking at standing water in their fields again following another wet period over the weekend and into Monday.
"I thought this would be an early harvest. This is turning into the latest early harvest I've ever been part of," said Matt Schafer, a corn and soybean producer in LaCrosse.
"We were kind of on track to have one of our fastest harvests ever. However, that's obviously not going to happen now," said Kassi Rowland, a partner at Tom Farms in Leesburg.
Rowland said more than 3 inches of rain came down most recently on the 57 percent of the corn and 43 percent of the soybeans remaining in her fields.
"Water was ponding everywhere," she said.
Tom Farms has about 18,000 acres in Kosciusko, Marshall, Huntington, Whitley, Elkhart and Noble counties.
Schafer reported a similar amount of precipitation in his fields located from LaCrosse to Kouts.
He said nearly all of his corn is in, while he still has about 40 percent of his soybeans to harvest.
USDA is still predicting record yields for corn and soybeans in some states like Indiana and Michigan.
Schafer said his corn yields are only about average, though, and lower in ground more saturated from the late June and early July rains.
He said some corn growers nearby who didn't receive quite as much rain then are seeing better results but nothing close to record yields.
Schafer gave a grade of A- on his soybean yields, so far.
He would have given his soybeans a perfect score had it not been for yields suffering in a few spots impacted more by the heavy, early summer rain.
"The soybeans are pretty good. It's not something I would have bet on in June," he said.
Rowland rated her corn and soybean yields, so far, as above average.
She's concerned any additional rain that might fall in the coming days or weeks could diminish yields in the rest of her crop, particularly with soybeans.
Soybeans, close to the ground from the weight of moisture, are more difficult for a combine to pickup.
"Our goal is always to be done with harvest by Thanksgiving. I don't know if we'll meet that this year, but that's our hope," she said.
Schafer said about 50 percent of his corn was in before the mid-October rains drove him out of the fields.
When he resumed harvesting, Schafer said he focused more on his corn because some of the stalks were weakened this year from things like tar spot.
He didn't want any more of his corn falling to the ground and being difficult to harvest from stalks collapsing, especially in windy conditions.
According to Schafer, unusual warmth late in the growing season was a factor in some of his corn having weaker stalks.
He said a lack of nutrients in the ground from extreme temperatures forced some corn plants to make up for the shortage by drawing nutrients from their stalks, which caused them to lose strength.
"We already had some overall plant health issues late in the season that led to some corn that didn't want to stand all that well. The wind the other night didn't help," Schafer said.
Schafer was hesitant to put a time frame on finishing his harvest but felt mid-November is well within reach depending on the weather.
He expects having to dry down the rest of his soybeans, once they are harvested.
"Drying beans isn't the most fun thing in the world, but it is what it is," he said.
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