(Lakefield, Mn.)– Area producers are feeling some anxiety as ongoing wet weather continues to prevent the start of harvest.
Jim Nesseth of Extended Ag Services in Lakefield says the affect the moisture is having on the crops is a real concern, with some reports locally of some soybeans even starting to sprout in the pods…
“We’ve got some really wet fields where, you know, the top soil is saturated and we have some water standing, so it’s just going to take some time to get those fields to dry out so we can at least get in there and start some harvest. Of course we’re really concerned about stalk quality on the corn and some of these soybeans have been wet. There’s concern about maybe some of those pods starting to pop, split and pop a little bit when it dries down, so. There’s a lot of concern out there and it’s something we can’t do much about.”
Fortunately, dry weather is in the forecast in coming days. But even then, Nesseth says it’s going to take weeks, in some cases, before the ground dries up enough to support the weight of harvest equipment…
“We’ve got areas where we’ve actually got water standing in the fields. That could be a week to 10 days possibly. The big this is we just need sunshine, that’s the most important thing, and then a gentle breeze. We don’t need any big winds. That would be really tough on our corn that’s left in the field. It’s just one of those things that it’s going to take some time. I kind of reflected, the last time we had a really wet fall like this and I believe it was back in 2009. At that time I know we were still really getting going on combining corn by the first of November, so it was a late fall and it’s kind of shaping up where it might be the same situation in 2026.”
Nesseth says producers may be forced to harvest areas once it’s dry enough to do so and go back later to get those areas where it was too wet initially.
