Above average

harvest yields expected

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- Warmer, dryer weather forecasts this week should help farmers get back into their fields and continue harvest.

Although it's too wet to get into fields to the south and east due to heavy rains since last Thursday, Brown County farmers aren't fairing too badly.

Yields vary but 20-50 bushel soybeans are anticipated, 8-10 bushels higher than was expected. Beans without too much early rain should reach 50 bushels per acre. Late September rain bumped up most yields.

Brown County corn is expected to average 140-160 bushels per acre. A fungus killed some corn earlier in the season. Harvest moisture should be in the high teens to mid 20s.

The harvest got a good early start in September, University of Minnesota Brown County Agriculture Educator Wayne Schoper said. There were some wetness delays, but with sunshine and warmer weather, farmers will catch up in a hurry. With nice weather, combines will be rolling 24 hours a day. Some farmers were moving Tuesday morning.

Schoper said the corn harvest is off to a good start while many beans are still in the field.

Nicollet County corn yields varied from 130-170 bushels, and soybeans averaged 20-60 bushels, according to Extension educator Gary Hachfeld. Most corn silage is done. Soybeans are a couple weeks late. About a quarter of the crop remains in the field.

Hachfeld would like to see a good killing frost.

"It would get rid of weeds from bean fields that were drowned out early and help them go through the combine better," Hachfeld said.

Sibley County is very wet but hopeful for the most part, Extension educator Tim Dolan said.

"We came to a screeching halt, it's even wet enough to slide," Dolan said. "There is lots of optimism yet, but people are a little nervous about the delays."

No yield measurements have been taken, but Dolan expects 35-50 bushel beans.

Conditions seem to be wetter in Blue Earth County. Only 10 percent of soybeans have been harvested in wetter parts of the county that received 3 inches of rain last week.

Statewide, soil temperatures last week averaged 2.1 degrees below normal, according to the Minnesota Agricultural Statistics Service.

Monday's crop report showed 75 percent of topsoil moisture was adequate, 20 percent surplus, 4 percent short and 1 percent very short.

One-third of the soybean acreage was harvested, compared to 48 percent on the same date last year and the five-year-average of 65 percent.

Corn and soybean conditions improved. Seventy-two percent of soybeans were rated good to excellent last week, two points higher than the previous week. Corn was rated 72 percent good to excellent, three points more than last week.

Corn was 95 percent mature, equalling the five-year average. It was 86 percent mature last year. The corn silage harvest was 94 percent complete, 2 points lower than the 5-year average.

Sixty-eight percent of dry, edible beans were harvested, compared with the five-year average of 84 percent. Forty-five percent of sugar beets were harvested compared with 38 percent for the five-year average.

Because many parts of the country experienced droughts this year, corn and soybean prices are higher than past years.

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)