Harvest planning begins as farmers wait for fields to dry following consistent September rain

An abundance of rain earlier in the month and most cornfields nearing top maturity in the area has led to a waiting game for farmers.

Angie Rieck-Hinz, field agronomist for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, said that the 4.72 inches of rain that fell from Sept. 7 through Sept. 11 rocketed the area up towards its normal precipitation levels for the year, falling just 3.06 inches behind the average from April 1 to Sept. 17. While the rain fell a little too late to benefit the crops this year, she said it will provide a boost heading into next year’s planting season.

“The nice thing is, since we’ve been fairly dry coming into that week, a lot of it soaked into the ground and didn’t run off,” she said. “We need to capture moisture right now to fill soil profile backup.”

What that means for this year, though, Rieck-Hinz said, is that the anticipated early harvest for corn will need to be delayed to allow fields to solidify and plants to dry. Rieck-Hinz said plants are at about a 35 percent moisture level, nearly double the desired 18 percent or less.

“This week will be fairly warm and have sunshine, so that should drop moisture points every day,” she said. “Farmers want to bring moisture content down to not spend money to dry it.”

For soybeans, Rieck-Hinz said the timing of the rain should not affect harvest too drastically, as soybean plants in the area have not quite reached maturity.

“We don’t have a lot of frost in the immediate future and we don’t have a lot of big chances for rain in the next 10 days, so we’ll probably just start with corn,” she said.

While farmers wait for fields to dry, Rieck-Hinz said they should be prioritizing their fields for harvest. She said wind damage from the Aug. 10 derecho event and stress from the drought that lasted most of July and August has weakened stalks in some fields, which means those plants’ ability to stand becomes less and less the longer they sit in fields.

“Those fields should be prioritized first because they aren’t going to stand for much longer,” she said.

Additionally, Rieck-Hinz said now is also an appropriate time for farmers to plan for the harvest from a safety standpoint. She said it’s important to remember personal health and equipment safety as long hours on the fields and roadways approach.

“When the weather is nice, people run long hours, fatigue sets in and people aren’t as careful around moving equipment,” she said. “It’s good to take breaks, good to get as much sleep as you can and good to eat right.”