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The big push started Tuesday, Oct. 8, for the local soybean harvest, with machinery, trucks and wagons kicking up dust in nearly every part of the county.
After only two solid days in the fields, however, Mother Nature brought the gears to a grinding halt with rain Thursday followed by snow Friday and Saturday.
Those two days in the field were enough to offer a glimpse at soybean yields for 2019.
With the late planting and wet growing season, yields were predicted at roughly 20 percent down from average years (Rock County soybeans typically yield 60 to 65 bushels per acre).
So far that’s what’s coming in to local elevators, according to Dan Boltjes, sales agronomist with CHS Magnolia.
He said he's seeing 45- to 50-bushel averages, with yield monitors swinging widely from 30 to 55 bushels per acre in a single field. A few May-planted soybeans yielded 60 bushels per acre.
Soybeans are coming in with 13- to 14-percent moisture, which Boltjes said is just right. “It’s time to get them out,” he said last week.
He said the first load or two appeared Monday night, Oct. 7, but by Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 9, harvest was in full swing.
After nearly a third of an inch of moisture, followed by cool temperatures, Boltjes said it will probably be Thursday (Oct. 17) before conditions improve enough to start combining again. “She’s pretty greasy out there yet,” Boltjes said Tuesday. “And the beans took on moisture.”