Bringing in the crop
It’s really early — like the top of the first inning of a baseball game or the first couple of minutes of a football game — but area farmers say that they’re hopeful they will get better-than-expected yields, despite a growing season that was adversely affected by drought.
The harvest season got underway this past weekend, and several farmers that the Tribune talked to Sunday said they were pleasantly surprised by the yields they were bringing in with both corn and soybeans.
“It’s been a challenging year,” ISU Extension Agronomist Terry Basol said a couple of weeks ago, “but there are guys out there that think it won’t be quite as bad as some people are saying it’s going to be.”
A growing season that started out with so much promise — an abundance of moisture, a normal planting season for once and timely rains in May and June — turned south over the summer when rainfall seemed to evaporate.
Still, heading into the spring with a full moisture compliment and that solid start to the season will pay dividends in coming weeks.
— For more on this story, see the Sept. 29 Tribune and Oct. 1 Reporter