Weather conditions over this year’s growing season have given area farmers a mixed bag of results.
The growing season began with extreme rain, and in some cases, flooding of fields.
Since the abnormally wet spring, the summer, and especially the last two months, have been just as equally as dry.
Some farmers lost a major number of crops with the downpours of the spring while others were growing resilient crops such as soybeans, which have seen respectable outputs.
Certified Crop Advisor Shawn Eckstein of Eckstein Agronomics spoke with Seehafer News about how things are going in October.
He noted both positives and negatives when it comes to the weather patterns experienced.
“There’s been some long days in getting the beans off, and that doesn’t happen too often,” he explained, “So with this weather, most of the beans should be wrapped up here in the next week.”
Other positives he mentioned include the benefits of manure hauling in dry conditions.
As for negatives, he said, “The lack of moisture is keeping our fall crops from having consistent germination. By fall crops, I’m referring to winter wheat that is planted now and the many acres of cover crops.”
While Eckstein mentioned there isn’t exactly an “average” growing season, he believes crop output, despite varying harsh weather conditions, has been on par with what many would consider average for area farmers.
