Mid-season Crop Check Reveals Very Different Tale

[Ben Klick/Ohio Producer] Man, what a year. I, I don't even know how to describe it other than you just kind of scratch your head and, you know, you call you, you drive around, you talk to your neighbors, and you're all in the same boat. So they should feel a little bit better after you drive around and look at what you got out of your back door, and you're on your own personal acres. But what, the way to go to my wife. Over the weekend, as we were cutting the wheat there, over 40th July during the nice stretch weather we had, was I just feel like it's just this year that you're just never going to get ahead. We're just going to continue to be behind. and then before we know it, it'll be harvest. And before, you know, it'll be Christmas. So yeah.

[Yeager] Well, when we last talked in the spring, you were feeling behind already then? because rain had hit and rain wasn't so much that it was so heavy, but it was ill timed. Am I remembering correctly?

[Klick] Yes, yes. And, you know, at that current time, the weather was just unseasonably cold. We always get some cold stretches through April and May, but, May was one of the coolest on record. wasn't necessarily overly wet like it was plenty where. But it was just cool. I mean, we had, we had some later frost that actually affected our week a little bit as we got into harvest, you know, get set up for the weekend, but, my grandpa, great grandpa, used to joke about if you have thunder in February, you'll have frost. And so we had some thunderstorms here in the winter months. So, apparently that still holds true to some later frost.

[Yeager] What does the bean crop then look like?

[Klick] Yeah. I tell you what, Paul, I am pleasantly surprised how good the beans look and disappointed how poor the corn looks for how it's handled all the moisture. It's at, and similar farms grain, similar single all types plant dates are about the same. But the beans have managed a lot better through the warm, wet temperatures. In the more enhanced corners. It's very uneven. The stand is there and all. That's fine, but just a lot of wavy up and down. Several different growth stages on in areas that are drowned out or, you know, got water away in the supports behind. So, but beans look very good overall.

[Yeager] Things were looking up in the spring with moisture. But you had that feeling didn't you, that it wasn't going to last.

[Jamie Kress/Idaho Producer] I knew we were in a difficult place because we did not have a ton of extra moisture banked in the soil profile, which meant that we really needed that typical or typical to above average type rainfall. And we've had the absolute opposite story. So in April, May and June, which are May and June, be the most critical for me. But April, May and June this year we had 1.5in of rain in those three months. And for me, I need an average rainfall is 5.5in. So I know for some people listening or watching, you know, 5.5in during April, May and June, it's not huge, but that in my world would make a crop. So it's been really frustrating. Like we've talked about before, like we talked about last time, it's the nature of farming. The weather is what it is. and you work with it. but it's been rough to watch because all the crops did look pretty good, you know, in May there was so much potential there. So it's been hard to watch, but. 

[Yeager] If it rains two inches over the next three days, what does that mean for you?

[Kress] If it rains two inches over the next three days, it means that I might have some moisture to plant into for next year's winter crops, and we'll start seeding those late August. If there's moisture there.

[Yeager] That's not going to save anything.

[Kress] Not at this point. But, I mean, it can't hurt, right? Well, I shouldn't say I was going to say, if you're a farmer, you always will take the rain, but that's actually not the story.

[Yeager] That's what Ben said. That's exactly what Ben said. He. He says, I can't say I won't take the rain because he knows the opposite.

[Kress] Yeah. 

[Yeager] So does that mean, I mean, so winter wheat. What did make it is, has been harvested or is about to be harvested.

[Kress] So in our world where we're at right now, we're about 7 to 10 days out from harvesting. So I think it'll be about July 20th when we're really kind of moving in earnest. Right now, the combine’s ready to go, the green beans are all cleaned out, the air tubes are set up. We're just kind of in that waiting pattern.

[Yeager] What else do you have planted and that you're watching and is there anything yet to be harvested this summer?

[Kress] Yeah. So, we've got canola. We have winter and spring canola. That will be the first crop that we'll start with cutting. And then we have the winter wheat and spring wheat. We have chickpeas. And then we also have the camelina little test plot. It seems to be coming along fine. It's very clean. We kept it nice and clean. I was worried about weed trouble. But it looks good as far as we know. We won't know till we put a combine through it. Obviously. Exactly what we have, but it's been a fun experiment, if you will. So far. So what we'll do, harvest wise, is we just start wherever it's most ripe, and it's going to take us five weeks. We have one machine, a small crew of our family, and we'll just slowly work through what is most ripe and most critical to get through. That's in front of us. It will take, you know, another 2 to 3 weeks to have everything ripen anyways. So there's that little bit of natural, things aren't all ripe at the same time because of our elevation. And then you factor in, if it's a spring crop or winter crop, etc..

The full MtoM releases Tuesday. 

Contact: Paul.Yeager@iowapbs.org