View From the Cab

Rain Delays Harvest in Western Iowa, Florida Panhandle

Richard Oswald
By  Richard Oswald , DTN Special Correspondent
This year's DTN View From the Cab farmers are Jamie Harris of Madison, Fla., and Karen Johnson of Avoca, Iowa. (Jamie Harris photo by Elaine Shein; Karen Johnson photo by Nick Scalise)

LANGDON, Mo. (DTN) -- Agriculture has a complex relationship with the environment, where farmers do the best they can and weather does whatever it will. That's the way it is for View From the Cab farmers Karen Johnson of Avoca, Iowa, and Jamie Harris of Madison, Fla., as they wait for Mother Nature to cooperate.

"Here at our farm it was another hectic and disappointing week for us -- our corn and beans are still too wet to combine. Believe me, that is especially disconcerting seeing as how it's nearly the middle of October and we usually start harvest by about the 20th of September," Karen told DTN.

Soybean harvest progress in the area around their farm picked up the end of last week ahead of rain late Sunday into Monday. But with corn still wet and their soybeans testing 17% moisture, Karen and her husband Bill continued to wait it out.

On Tuesday while Bill and son Jerod worked on machinery, Karen helped grandson Dakota make a nature project diorama using flora and fauna from around the farm. "I showed him plant material possibilities outside he could use. He gathered what he wanted and came inside and made his trees and planned his project layout," she said. "His mother came from a very hectic day at work and had supper with us and was quite happy Dakota had most of his (school) project done."

Harvest-delayed farmers find all kinds of chores. Bill and Karen cleaned the drying floor of their 36-foot bin where unnamed insects had coated it with "web-like residue." Bill then used an approved insecticide to eliminate the pests. Work in the bin was completed in about three hours, but according to Karen, aftereffects lingered: "Today's sweeping and scraping had a variety of new aches and pains working on both of us during the night and neither of us got much sleep." Adding to last week's pain for Bill was a root canal, the second one in two weeks. It wasn't the procedure that hurt: "The biggest 'pain' was to our pockets from the just over $1,000 cost for each root canal," Karen said.

Without newly opened stalk fields to utilize, Bill is still haying their cows. Also last week, Bill and a couple of helpers placed a new riser on an overflow tube in a pasture dam. Later on, a contractor finished off the job. "He repaired the drive access over the dam and a washout on one end and sculpted the area on both sides to keep the dam from washing out," Karen explained.

Once harvest begins, it may be difficult to stop. That's why Bill and Karen went to the Shelby County courthouse in Harlan to vote early in this year's mid-term elections. "Now when we get super busy with harvest, we won't have to worry about getting to the polls in November," Karen said.

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Last week Karen read that this is the slowest soybean harvest in 30 years. She affirmed that on their farm; they're about three weeks behind normal. And corn prices are now well below cost of production. Karen read that a University of Nebraska economist feels $7 to $8 corn prices are needed to support land prices in Iowa at recent levels.

Things may be looking up: "Many combines in the area were running on mostly soybeans the last three days and harvest is getting into full swing mode finally in our western Iowa area ... our area's weather outlook for the next five to 10 days is for good harvest weather, and I'm sure there will be tremendous progress in our whole area," Karen observed.

Meanwhile, in spite of delays, Jamie in Florida has made progress.

"I can talk anytime," Jamie told DTN late Tuesday. "We're rained out." Though rain was not extremely heavy, peanut harvest was delayed because peanut vines must be dry before the combine can separate them from the peanuts.

Maybe it was time for a break. Jamie reported four- to 10-hour waits at the peanut buying point where up to 30 trucks have been waiting in line for empty trailers to return to the field.

Once dug, peanuts are placed in van trailers equipped with drying fans. Heated air is blown through the trailers to dry the peanuts. Dried peanuts are then unloaded, empty vans are picked up by growers in their own truck tractors, and returned to fields for reloading. "Everybody in the area has been hauling in -- about 80 loads in 24 hours," Jamie explained. Even so, Jamie and his partners at Jimmy Harris and Sons family farm were able to combine about 200 acres of previously dug peanuts last week.

Yields of a new variety of high-oleic peanuts have been unexpectedly good. "Irrigated yields are the best we've ever raised, about 7,000 pounds per acre," Jamie said. It may seem contradictory, but edible high-oil peanuts are used in candy while low-quality peanuts are the primary source of peanut oil.

About half the pumpkins in one seven-acre field have been cut and gathered. Stems are cut by laborers who then move the pumpkins to a blank strip between plant beds. Then cardboard boxes are loaded with about 40 pumpkins each, and boxes placed on a semitrailer for delivery to buyers. Ten thousand pumpkins were gathered with nearly that many more still in the field. Once mature, probably in a few days, remaining pumpkins will be gathered the same way. Jamie told DTN he likes growing pumpkins because planting falls at a time when things on the farm are slow, and they're a cash crop that doesn't require storage or extra handling.

Watermelons, another crop new to Jamie, will be cut starting today.

In a subtle reminder of the differences between Midwestern crops and the Sunbelt where frost is a rarity, first-planted broccoli has been sprayed for whiteflies, powdery mildew and downy mildew.

Almost all the soybeans are out now, about 350 acres. The last 100 acres, a later variety, will have to wait another 10 days. Dryland yields have been about 45 bushels per acre with irrigated soybeans about 10 bushels better at 55. They might have been better. "The dry spell hurt them pretty bad," Jamie said.

Jamie noted that Florida harvest weather hasn't been as expected. Regular rains are the new norm. Rain early this week was forecast heavier with tornado warnings issued. But luckily rain totals only amounted to about 3/4 of an inch. Severe weather was a no-show.

"Typically here we'll be dry until November. Usually this time of year fronts don't hold together. But it's been raining every week to 10 days. That's not typical for here," Jamie said.

Richard Oswald can be reached at Talk@dtn.com

Follow Richard Oswald on Twitter @RRoswald

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Richard Oswald