Frustrating.
That’s how Gavilon Grain Manager Dean Michaelson described this year’s harvest.
“It’s just been frustrating being able to get into the fields,” he said. “It was too dry in July when you needed the rain. We had a cool August. It’s been frustrating on soybeans these last three weeks, because just when it gets ready to go, it rains again. That’s the biggest frustration.”
After a wet spring, Union County and surrounding areas, especially to the east in Clarke and Decatur counties, experienced drought conditions for much of the summer, beginning in late May and extending through August.
The average rainfall amount for Creston in July is 4.39 inches for the month, but Creston received just .76 inches.
According to Harry Hillaker, state climatologist with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Creston received 1.42 inches of rain this past weekend. Rain totals for the weekend in Ringgold County were .75 inches in Mount Ayr and .67 inches in Beaconsfield.
“This time of year, you typically get .6 inches per week,” Hillaker said. “So, for the area, anywhere from a normal rainfall week to about double the usual week. And, that wasn’t all the rain we had this past week. In the Tuesday night time frame (Oct. 10), would have been a fair amount of rain over your area, as well.”
Ringgold County farmer Matt Daughton is in the same boat as many farmers in the area, waiting for his fields to dry out.
Daughton estimated he is about 10 days to two weeks behind where he typically is at this point in the harvest season.
“The worst problem right now is getting the ground dry enough to get a run on it,” Daughton said. “The moisture is there and it’s making the stems harder to cut. The beans are dry enough, but the stems aren’t.”
Daughton said he was completely finished harvesting soybeans last year by the time the high school football season ended. Friday marks the final night of regular season games for Iowa high school football, and Daughton said he’s only about 30 percent done this year.
According to the most recent crop progress report released by the state, the south central Iowa district is, on average, even further behind at this point in the season.
The crop progress report reported, as of Sunday night, the south central Iowa district was 14 percent harvested on soybeans, while the state was 32 percent harvested, which is the lowest percentage harvested by this date since 1985. The five-year average for the state at this point in the harvest season is 66 percent harvested.
Michaelson said the normal harvest percentage for the south central Iowa district at this point of the season is 55 to 60 percent.
“It’s been a crazy October since we’re just starting in the bean harvest hot and heavy yesterday afternoon,” Michaelson said. “We’re probably 15 to 20 percent into bean harvest. We’re definitely behind normal harvest pace. At least the beans are drying down better this year than last year, so once they do get dry, they’re coming in dryer out of the field than last year.”
Only 13 percent of the corn crop has been harvested, the smallest percentage harvested by this date since 2009, and more than two weeks behind average.
The most recent forecast looks like it will provide farmers with a couple of days to work in the fields, but more rain is on its way.
Daughton said that could push him and other farmers even further behind.
“It really depends on what the weather does in the next 30 days,” he said. “If it gets cold, wet and sloppy, it will put everybody further behind yet. We’ve been this way before and it might put us behind 30 days.
“When the weather gets colder, it depends on how cold it gets,” Daughton said. “Sometimes we have to wait for it to freeze up to get into the fields. It’s hard to say that now when it’s 75 degrees outside.”
Michaelson said it helps that farmers are able to combine faster now than they used to be able to.
“But you get into November, then you have to worry about snow coming and hurting corn harvest,” Michaelson said. “Once you get into November, you just never know what the weather is going to do.”
On the positive side, Hillaker said the areas of the state where harvesting has been done, farmers have seen surprising results.
“That seems to be the general story this year that yields have turned out a little better than people would have anticipated, given how wet things were at the beginning of the season and how dry it turned in the middle of it,” Hillaker said.