Dry weather lets farmers catch up on harvest

Back-to-back dry sunny days have enabled combines, long idled by October rains, to resume rolling across Iowa corn and soybean fields.

Frustrated by one of the latest harvests in memory, hundreds of farmers took to their fields Sunday afternoon, and thousands more joined their ranks Monday, intent upon taking full advantage of the fair weather.

Where conditions permitted, farmers were oncentrating on soybeans, which are move vulnerable to loss and damage during a delayed harvest, according to Jim Fawcett, Iowa State University Extension crop specialist for Linn, Johnson, Benton, Iowa, Jones, Keokuk and Washington counties.

“With five to seven days of good weather, the soybean harvest could be virtually completed,” said Palle Pedersen ISU Extension soybean specialist.

Even with continued favorable weather, the corn harvest could take all of November “because there is so much of it left to do and because it's so wet,” Fawcett said.

Drying corn from its field condition, about 27 percent moisture, to the 15 percent moisture required for effective storage, will take time and will prevent farmers from going full tilt even in good conditions, he said.

ISU Extension Climatologist Elwyn Taylor said he thinks November will provide generally favorable harvest weather.

Noting the state's extremely wet August, followed by a dry September and a wet October, Taylor said the state has been in “an on-off precipitation pattern, which now appears to be switching off again.”

Supporting that position, the National Weather Service predicts the first half of November will be warmer and drier than normal, Taylor said.