Dry weather helps harvest but trims yields

WATERMAN, Ill. — Ryan Frieders was finished with harvest on his family farm near Waterman and a hot and dry August helped.

“We are done on our farm. We are a little ahead of some others in the area, we started harvesting on Sept. 22 and we finished on Oct. 22,” Frieders said.

Dry weather and lack of rains in August helped dry down crops.

“It’s at least a month ahead of schedule for us. Normally we try to finish by Thanksgiving, but we just had a really good stretch of nice weather. The crops were dry enough that we were able to harvest,” Frieders said.

Northwest of Malta, Mike Schweitzer was opening up a field of corn as he continued with his harvest.

“We are done with soybeans and half about half of our corn left,” said Schweitzer, who farms with his father, Paul, near Malta.

That same dry weather that helped farmers in DeKalb County and across the state get a quicker start on harvest also had a negative impact on yields.

“I think it really affected the soybeans. It probably took 10 to 15 bushel off the top end of those, and probably the corn, too, we are running right around average,” Schweitzer said.

Frieders agreed.

“It was very dry in August and warmer than normal all year long. Our corn yields were down a little bit this year. I think it was due to that lack of rain. Our soybeans were about average, nothing outstanding, but nothing too bad. I would say it was a good year for us, but definitely not our best year,” Frieders said.

Frieders said the impacts of the drought in August were clear to see in both corn and soybeans.

“It was amazing how much it impacted the corn in particular. There was some tipback in the ears. The ears in general were smaller. It just seemed like it hit at exactly the wrong time for us. We had been doing so well up to that point. We had really nice, timely rains and we had one big rain earlier so it wasn’t that we were dry going into August,” he said.

Frieders said the impacts on soybeans varied, depending on the variety.

“It definitely impacted our earlier maturity soybeans. They seemed to hit the wall in August and they just quit growing. They were really needing that rain to keep them finishing. The beans inside the pods were smaller than normal and there was no top growth. On some of our later maturity soybeans, we did eventually get some rain and you could just see where the new growth was and the beans inside the pods were a little bit bigger. I think the early soybeans suffered the most, on our farm, anyway,” he said.

Schweitzer said the year got off to a less than perfect start, but improved — until August.

“It was a challenging start, with all those rains we had right after planting. We ended up having to replant more than we ever have, just because of the wet conditions. We had pretty good weather until it turned up dry. We were in a pretty good situation,” he said.

Frieders farms with his wife, Deanne, and his parents, Ron and Denise.

Most of their crops go to terminals on the Illinois River in Ottawa. The closure of the Illinois River for repairs to locks and dams impacted their farm, Frieders said.

“It definitely impacted our sales from last year. We cleaned out everything early because we knew they were going to be closing the river,” he said.

While the river recently reopened for barge traffic, Frieders said there still is some uncertainty around shipping.

“We have some deliveries for November and we have been told they are not sure how those are going to happen because even though it’s opening back up, everything is backlogged right now. Hopefully they can figure out a good way for the deliveries to happen and get the grain moving to the Gulf again,” he said.