Farmers got the combines into the field to start the harvest then the skies opened up and brought work to a stop.
Iowa State University Extension field agronomist Angie Rieck Hinz says fields are pretty wet and you should give them some time to dry out before moving the combine back in. “Those tracks and ruts we’re going to leave if we’re in there too early, they’re not going to go, that damage in our soil is not going to go away with fall tillage if it dries out enough to do fall tillage. It’s not going to go away with spring tillage, right, that impact lasts for a long So we really hope people have a little bit of patience,” she says.
You can level out the ruts in the fields, but Rieck Hinz says the biggest concern is compacted soil. “That will impact yields for, you know, going forward in time for a few years,” she says. Rieck Hinz says the quality of the corn stands is another issue to be aware of during harvest.
“Stalk quality in corn is not good, and we knew that in early August, and thankfully we’ve not gotten a lot of wind with this rain,” Rieck Hinz says. Her surveys in her north-central Iowa area haven’t turned up a lot of bent over corn. “I haven’t seen a lot of corn down, or very little corn down, so that’s a good sign, but people know that stalk quality is not good and they’ll prioritize those fields to take out the worst standing fields first, so they don’t have to worry about combine challenges later,” she says.
Rieck Hinz says the harvest could be delayed into November, which she says is okay. “We’re not in a serious situation yet,” she says. The forecast is calling for some drier weather early next week.
(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)