Rural Iowa — Fall arrives this week and its arrival usually signals the start of the harvest season in Iowa. Several Sheldon area farmers are already in the fields combining soybeans.
Iowa State University extension agronomist, Mark Licht says everything leading up to the harvest has gone pretty well.
He says most farmers are climbing into the combine with confidence about what they’ll see in the field.
Licht says wet weather caused the majority of the concerns in southern Iowa.
Dry conditions had some impact in the northern half of the state, but maybe not as much as the rain did in the south.
There was a stretch of unseasonably cool weather recently where temperatures dropped into the 50s in the evening, and Licht says that could have some impact there.
Weather may still cause some problems before all the crops are in because of development issues brought on by cooler weather.
Licht says the soybean crop appears to be in good shape too.
Licht says its best to have the crops reach maturity before the first frost, which usually happens at the end of September or early October.
