Right around harvest time, eastern Nebraska and western Iowa saw extensive rainfall, dampening the crops and turning the fields into piles of mud.
"This year we had so many weeks where we couldn't get out there that we got delayed until mid-November," says Bill Armbrust, a farmer.
Armbrust, who farms in Elkhorn, was able to finish the harvest just before it got chilly. But Valley farmer Ryan Uehberrhein wasn't so lucky.
He's still got 460 acres to harvest before he calls it a year.
"Things are just set back a little bit but we've got good weather coming up it looks like and so hopefully that will allow us to get done," says Ryan Uehberrhein.
As farming technology has improved over the years harvesting into mid-November has decreased. But Uehberrhein says it's something he's been through before.
"We've been able to speed up harvest, get it planted sooner so we can harvest sooner, so this really isn't anything totally out of the norm it's just taking a little longer than what it should have this year," says Uehberrhein.
The recent frigid temperatures have made things uncomfortable for farmers to be out into the fields...it's also made the ground harder and easier for their equipment to roll through.
While many of the crops still out in the field are usable, the chances of farmers losing crops increases as the cold weather pushes through, all coming at a time where commodity prices continue to drop.
“If we lose 10 or 15 bushels of crop out in the field, that's right off a very shallow profit margin...if there's any profit margin,” says Armbrust.
