Harvest just a waiting game

SEYMOUR -- Ray Cook, like many other farmers in Wayne County and South Central Iowa, had not started his harvest as of Oct. 8.

“We are sitting and waiting,” he said.

Even though the weather forecasts called for a hard freeze over the weekend, he said not much of the corn will be hurt by the end of the growing season. Cook noted most of the corn was already at or near black layer.

However, the same could not be said for the soybean crop in his area. Some fields were mature, while other fields were still green with patches of yellow.

“We have two soybean crops here,” Cook said.

The first crop got planted early, he said, and the later-planted soybeans got planted from the end of June into July. Those fields were still green.

Cook said the delayed harvest in this area was due to the excessive moisture from the spring. This year, they had more than 40 inches of rain on a soil that has a clay layer under it.

The rainy pattern was a continuation of the same weather that brought wet conditions the past couple years.

While driving around, he pointed out many fields have holes in the middle of them that were never planted this year.

“Most everything has a hole some place,” he says of the corn fields that look fine from the road.