Farmers race weather to finish harvest

Posted on November 5, 2019
Farmers are trying to harvest soybeans before damaging winds or precipitation threaten the crop. (United Soybean Board)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – The coldest weather of the 2019 planting season has come, and the harvest is not finished.

USDA Illinois statistician Mark Schleusener reports corn is 95 percent mature and 58 harvested, while soybeans are 77 percent harvested. The weather last week was ten degrees cooler and a third of an inch wetter than normal.

“If the soil conditions are right, if it’s not too wet, farmers are harvesting all that they can,” Schleusener says. “If there were a good wind storm, soybeans could shatter and fall on the ground, and the corn could be knocked down by the wind, too.”

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]. 

 

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