Kansas fall harvest lingers on amid wet weather

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HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas farmers say this has been a challenging fall harvest because of the wet weather. Now they are racing against the calendar to get the last of their crops cut.

Hutchinson farmer Miles Hartman said that most years their harvest would have been in the bin nearly a month ago.

But this season they couldn't get grain to dry enough without taking a big dock at the elevator. They also had to wait for the ground to dry out so combines could move in because it was wetter than normal this spring and summer.

Abbyville Co-op manager Steve Inslee says moisture content in the milo and corn has been up and down.

"This year's different. It's been crazy," he said. "They finally cut it when they could get in and cut it."

Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that 89 percent of the corn crop has been harvested. The report said 90 percent of the soybean crop and 79 percent of the sorghum crop are also in the bin.

Some fields have yielded abundant crops while others have been disappointing, Plevna farmer Dale Beck said. The crop he was cutting this week had barely matured.

"It was too cool and cloudy in August. It didn't have enough heat units to finish," he said. "It depends on what day or series of days you planted."

At the same time, some dryland soybean yields have been fantastic, totaling up to 50 bushels an acre.

Hartman's late milo crop also thwarted his plans to plant winter wheat this fall. Instead, those fields will be planted in soybeans and corn come spring.

"We really need to rotate, and since we didn't get it done we'll have to do it next year," Hartman said.

Meanwhile with her combine down for repairs, producer Gayla Moeckel worried about when she would be able to let her cattle graze on milo stubble.

"Since Oct. 18 I've been thinking that within three weeks, at the most a month, I'd have the cattle out," Moeckel said. "Every bale of hay you throw in those feeders means it's costing a lot more than putting them on milo stubs."

Near Turon, Jeff Schwertfeger said fall harvest was at least a month behind. The elevator took higher moisture corn than usual. But it is too late to plant winter wheat.

"We need sunshine and warmer weather and we're past that," Schwertfeger said. "What growth there is on the wheat is what we're going to have."

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Information from: The Hutchinson News, http://www.hutchnews.com