With over 13 inches of rainfall in the past several months, local farmers have had their hands full as they attempt to bring in their fall harvest. The race against the clock continues on as area laborers seek to get their crops out of the ground during whatever dry spells Sleepy Eye has before winter begins.
“That’s the gamble of farming ­– you never know what will happen,” explained Wayne Schoper, the University of Minnesota agriculture production systems extension educator for Brown County. He mentioned that despite all the best planning in the world, if the weather doesn’t cooperate, farmers can be in for a rough harvest.
Schoper explained that it has been a very interesting year so far for local agriculture. Farmers were forced into a late start in April and the weather remained very dry through May. When June and July hit, they had great rains for the growing season, but these rains have continued on for far too long. Ever since August, rain has been almost continuous, thus posing local farmers with many complications.
For all crops raised in the area, rain makes running combines through the fields difficult. The corn harvest specifically, which accounts for about 150,000 of the 350,000 acres of farmland in Brown County, is much wetter this year than in years past. From 2003-2008, the corn contained about 18 percent moisture. This year, the corn harvest has about 30 percent moisture.
This high moisture content is difficult for several reasons. In general, there can be more damage to the corn as it gets beaten down by the wind and heavy rains. Also, one major expense this adds to farmers is their need to dry the harvest in some way before selling it off.
Schoper explained that most farmers have a personal drying bin with some sort of gas burner they use to dry wet crops. However, when the bulk of the harvest is wet, they need to pay to use the large scale drying units at the grain elevator. This is where things can get complicated ­– and expensive.
“We will see long lines at the elevator, which can get stressful,” Schoper said. The elevator will take as much corn as it can until its dryers are full, and will then need to shut down and work through the batch before opening its doors again.
When it comes to soybeans, which account for about 135,000 acres of farmland in Brown County, the situation is not quite as bleak. Schoper estimated that half the crop is already out of the ground, explaining that harvesting soybeans takes a lot less time than harvesting corn. When dry days hit, soybeans drop their moisture fast and can be quickly brought in by farmers.
Typically, soybeans don’t need to be dried as much as corn. If necessary, farmers may bring the crop home, put it in their bins and run some air on it to get rid of the moisture. One complication that does occur with soybeans, however, is the possibility of splitting.
When rain comes and goes, soybeans sometimes go through stages that can be quite damaging to the crop. The beans will dry out due to a lack of rain and then swell up when rain does come, and this process repeats over and over again. If this happens too much, the pods will split, drop on the ground and be unusable. While Schoper said this is a possibility, splitting has not been a major issue this season.
Another factor that affects both the corn and soybean harvest this late in the year is the shortened length of daylight each day. While there may be a few more sunny days with high temperatures, there won’t be much of a chance for the crops to dry with natural sunlight. Schoper explained that if this rain had stopped back in September, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal, but now it’s almost November.
Currently, farmers have one strategy in mind: get the crops out of the ground as soon as it is safe to do so. They have the difficult decision of whether to hold out until experiencing dry weather or to pay the added expense of having their crops dried at the elevator. Schoper explained that all local farmers really need is a few dry days to finish their harvest. This would cause many people to breathe easier.
The key to this whole situation is getting all the crops out of the ground before winter truly hits. Schoper explained that a snow storm now would cause significant problems to farmers, especially with soybeans. Years ago, Schoper said that farmers were forced to wait until the ground froze, which caused major harvest losses.
“We can control a lot, but if the weather doesn’t cooperate, it’s all out the window,” he said.