Iowa farmers are rushing to complete the corn and soybean harvest before winter sets in for good. Forest City elevator manager Randy Broester says farmers in the north-central Iowa area are seeing the impact of wet conditions on their harvest. “Soybeans was about half-a-crop. A lot of yields were between 25 and 35 –typically we’re closer to 55-bushels. If you didn’t spray for aphids, we saw some yields get down to the ten, 12, 13 range,” Broester says.

The corn crop also took a hit. “Corn, we didn’t get it all planted, we were about thirty-percent not planted,” Broester says.”Where there was corn, it was very good 150 and 170. But we all had fields that were drowned out, or it dried out, so our yields dropped down into the 120, 125 area.” Broester says there’s still some corn left in the fields to be harvested.

“Harvest-wise, we’re probably less than ten-percent left to harvest at this point. We do have some soybeans out there, but they’re very, very wet and they’re just going to have to take ‘em because at this point they won’t dry down,” Broester says. Farm equipment lights could be seen in some Iowa farm fields Monday night as growers were moving on right through the snow and plunging temperatures to try and complete corn and soybean harvest.

The U.S.D.A.’s weekly crop harvest update normally comes out on Monday, but will be out this afternoon because of Monday’s Veterans Day holiday.