A week of dry skies has given farmers a open window to get the year’s harvest wrapped up.
Many cornfields in the area were already harvested prior to the recent wet weather. Those who hadn’t harvested had to wait for a dry period and this week has delivered that and for many it is now soybean harvesting time.
In eastern Saline County, Allan Porter of Rocky Branch is living in his combine while the rain holds off.
“They are saying it will rain again Thursday, but everyone is moving pretty good now,” he said.
The rain of the past week had slowed the bean harvest season down.
“You cannot cut beans when they are wet. The moisture test at the elevator costs you big money if you aren’t careful. It can mean over $200 per load,” Porter said. “There was a $750 dock on a single load last week. It is better now that things have dried off. We run about 12 to 14 hours a day. I feel pretty good because I was raised this way.
“You are not done until the last round.”
In the southern part of the county, his fields near Carrier Mills and reaching west to Stonefort are drier said Rich Reisler.
“It has been excellent weather for us. We only got about two inches last week. We are two-thirds done,” Reisler said.
“If we get another good week we will be done. Some of the farms in north county had 7 inches to 10 inches last week.”
Randy Anderson near Harco said, “We are not too bad. With the late planting and cool summer we are behind the normal year harvest. We would be at 75 percent now on a normal year. We are at 30 percent today on our corn and 45 percent on our beans. I do not think we will lose any. If the weather doesn’t turn on us, I think we will be alright.”
