South Dakota by Bill Eichacker
Field conditions in my region are damp to say the least. A killing frost entered on Friday that will determine some yield loss on corn that did not make it to black layer. Combines were starting up again in southwest Minnesota on Thursday. The weather forecast is not favorable for harvesting during the coming week. However, excellent yield results are coming out on the crops that have been harvested.
West Central Iowa by Travis Slusher
The weather has been overcast, dreary and damp, so there hasn’t been much harvest activity this week. Farmers were able to cut some beans in certain areas on Wednesday afternoon, but machines sat idle due to wet field and crop conditions the rest of the week. A few farmers switched to corn early in the week, but the corn was fairly wet.
Nebraska by Brian Banks
Once again spotty rains have slowed harvest. There are a few guys who are nearly finished with soybeans and looking to get into the corn if the weather permits. Overall, soybean yields are outdoing grower expectations. The only disappointing yields are coming from fields with heavy disease and/or insect pressure. It was cool and wet for most of the summer the central to northern part of the state, causing the conditions for brown stem rot, white mold and sudden death to be prevalent. In the southern part of the state, where it did not rain for about 7 weeks, the culprit is mainly charcoal rot due to dry conditions. Also in southern Nebraska, we are finding stem borer larva in the soybean stems and this has greatly affected yields. There is a pretty good chance for snow this weekend but next week’s forecast looks better. Hopefully, we can get a couple dry days to help harvest move forward.
Minnesota by Jason Obermeyer
Soybean harvest has come to a halt due to the wet weather. With the extended forecast showing more moisture in the picture for next week, a person can rationally start to get concerned about quality and harvestability issues. The biggest problem growers may run into is sickle shatter from the head. When pods cycle between being wet and dry, they become more brittle. Each time the pods dry out it increases their chances of exploding when the reel hits the pod. Keeping your reel speed down greatly reduces the chances of shatter, and in turn, puts more bushels in the tank. Decreased reel speed presents other challenges such as the crop not feeding in like it normally would, so cutting at an angle can help because you’re using the length of the sickle and there’s an even push across the width of the head. Along with the directional change, we may have to harvest when the moisture on the beans is reads 13.5 or wetter to reduce shatter as well. Almost all grain elevators have a discount schedule for wet beans, so you need to weigh how much is lost by the discount versus what gets lost from shatter. One of the more memorable quotes I’ve heard from a custom harvesters is: “I’ll cut them with the row, against the row or at an angle. I’ll even cut them backwards if I think it does a better job!”
East Central Iowa by Wayde McNeil
Rain, rain, go away … and come back in March! To say it’s wet and muddy here is an understatement. Only 20% of our bean harvest is done. The corn is very wet and has a very low test weight, ranging from 49 to 55 pounds. Stalk health diminishes daily, so we need some good weather to get back in the fields.
Northwest Central Iowa by Bart Peterson
More than 50% of the soybeans in my area have combined and 5% of the corn is done. Corn is running 22% and higher for moisture. West Central Iowa soybeans are 45% combined and corn is 10% to 15% combined. Hail-damaged corn is the reason why more corn is combined in West Central Iowa.
Wisconsin by Steve Bailie
Do to the unfavorable weather this past week, many farmers are anxious to get rolling. In spite of rain, fog and a lack of sunshine, some growers were able to harvest some corn. The yields have been all over the board. A common yield in a field that had hail would be 123 to 140 bushels per acre (b/A). In fields that weren’t hit by hail, the yields have been coming in anywhere from 180 to 220 b/A. Although moisture in many of these fields is in the high 20s to mid 30s, growers are still harvesting because they’re in a race against the amount of work to be done and the dismal forecast for the next 7 days.
Many bean fields have not been harvested or even opened up yet. The weather again has kept many growers out of the fields. Rains have been coming every other day, so as soon as the fields are ready to be harvested, it seems to rain. In the south central part of Wisconsin, we’ve had a few reports that L2085R is yielding in the high 60s to low 70s. One upside to the weather is that farmers have had time to work on their crop plans for the year to come.
Northwest Iowa by Bruce Anderson
I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but the weather is still delaying soybean combining. The last rainfall dumped four inches on Spirit Lake. What was combined in the last week was yielding slightly higher than the earlier ones. I am hearing yields in the 60s and lower 70s in the western part of the state with L2085R at the top. We have yet to harvest any plots containing our new varieties, so we’re still waiting to see how those are yielding.
North Iowa by Tom Larson
The key Latham® soybeans that have been harvested (L1983R, L2085) are the ones to beat. This is true in both Latham research trials as well as independent third-party tests. As the weather improves, look for a tremendous amount of progress to be made in soybean harvest. Some farmers have ventured into a few corn fields. As expected, the moisture is higher than previous years and the soggy ground is making it a slow go.
North Central Iowa by Kevin Meyer
There was very little field activity in the North Central area this week because of the weather. A few soybeans were harvested late Wednesday, but the rain today possibly ended harvest for the week. Some corn was harvested with moistures around 24%. It’s a little early to determine yield trends with concerns of field variation across the fields. Hopefully, next week will give us better harvest conditions.
Northeast Iowa by Nick Benson
We’re still in a waiting pattern. Not much has happened since my last report, so many farmers are getting very anxious. Most farmers I’ve talked with are planning to start harvesting again on Monday. Now is a good time to get out and check stalks for stalk rot, so you can prioritize fields for harvest. The areas that have got hit by hail have smutted up and are infested by mold, so make sure to protect yourself from the harmful mold spores when you do get into this corn. We will be harvesting wet corn, but at least after this imminent freeze we will be able to go full speed with harvest.
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