Wet fields slow harvest but it’s on again!

National Farmers Day came and went on Friday, but it wasn't exactly a day for area farmers to celebrate. “It's kind of hard to drive a tractor over a sponge,” mentioned one farmer standing outside his tractor and surveying his soggy corn field northeast of Minneota.

“I got some of the corn in last week, but I haven't been able to get out again since that. I thought maybe I could today, but I think I'm going to have to wait a couple of more days.”

National Farmers Day was designed to annually honor all the hard-working farmers. But this year’s well-deserved honor didn’t mean much to the farmers who are anxiously waiting for better weather to get out in their fields.

Farmers were able to begin harvesting in early October before the rains came down for several days. The rains were followed by chilly temperatures last week that did little to help dry up the fields.

With the weather dryer and warmer this week, farmers will be going full bore to get their crops harvested and put into storage in case of additional inclement weather, including snow which recently fell in parts of North Dakota last week.

Farmers generally harvest soybeans first because if it's not picked soon enough, it's more susceptible to damage. And if beans remain in the field too long, the pods can open up and the beans can fall out.

But because some beans hadn't fully matured before the rains fell, some crops will suffer damage.

And because of the wet and muddy conditions, some farmers turned to harvesting corn first this fall.

“I'd say farmers have about 25 percent of the corn and 25 percent of the beans harvested around the area,” said Scott Dubbelde, General Manager of Farmers Cooperative Elevator in Hanley Falls.

“If we don’t get any more bad weather, they will be able to get a lot more harvested (this week).”

Dubbelde recalls one farmer recently talking to him about the way things have been this year.

“He said that 2018 has been a really tough year,” Dubbelde told.

“And he’s right. It's been a non-traditional year. January is usually cold and sunny and it was gloomy this year.”

“Then we had snow last April. And spring was a tough time with all the rain. And now harvesting season has been tough. It will be nice when it's finally dry enough in order to carry the harvesting equipment. Thank God we didn't get the foot and a half of snow that they got in North Dakota recently.”

A drive around the area this past weekend revealed that only a handful of farmers were able to get into their field to harvest because of saturated fields with some fields still having standing water in them.

“Look at those tracks I made getting out here,” the farmer northeast of Minneota pointed out.

“They are well over a foot deep. It needs to dry up a lot more; especially those fields with beans in low-lying areas. It has been a weird year, but we'll be okay as long as we can get into the fields next week.”

Many farmers have been pleased with corn yields this fall. “It's been pretty good this year in terms of corn,” a farmer near Taunton noted this past weekend.

“I'd say the harvest is above average. But we need to get all the corn in because some of the stalks are starting to rot that have been standing in water so long.”

And soybeans in some wet areas are showing signs of mold, according to some farmers. The wet conditions have prevented the corn from drying in the field, however.

For those farmers, drying will mean additional work and cost. Grain prices have dipped in the last years due to an excess worldwide that have reduced the price.

Add to that the tariffs that have hurt decreased the soybean crop value and it’s been a season to forget. “It's been a struggle,” said Dubbelde.

“But as my former wrestling coach at SMSU, Mike Sterner, told us, 'Tough times don't last; tough people do'. I've always remembered that.”