Weather delays harvest, planting
Staff writer
Wet weather has delayed harvest and planting of fall crops, but the delay isn’t yet proving damaging
Farmers usually plant winter wheat before Sept. 15, often after picking summer corn.
“We got started late,” John Ottensmeier, manager of Cooperative Grain and Supply, said.
Farmers are doing what they can to cope with the late harvest, and Ottensmeier thinks they are managing.
“It’s been really wet,” he said.
Extension agent Rickey Roberts agreed that weather was delaying harvest of corn and soybeans.
“Really, it’s a combination of rain and warm weather that is still here,” he said.
Normally, at this time of year, leaves start to fall off soybean plants, but wet weather caused them to stay on the crop, he said.
“I thought we would have leaf drop by now,” Roberts said. “They are going a little longer than I would have thought.”
But Roberts has yet to hear of major impacts to farmers.
“I don’t know if it’s a huge problem right now,” he said.
The delay in planting wheat could be a blessing because army worms chew up newly planted crops. Planting later reduces the threat, he said.
“Right now, I do know that is a big deal,” Roberts said. “It may be a blessing because the army worms ought to be slowing down.”
They would chew off what is planted because they go after new growth.
No rain is forecast in Marion County until Monday, and a slow stream of trucks have been transporting corn to area elevators all week.