Twelve consecutive days of measured rainfall in Omaha, the most in over 5 years, have pushed into harvest season across the Corn Belt, leaving Iowa farmers waiting for fields to dry out before they can get equipment rolling.
Kevin Ross, a 7th-generation farmer outside of Minden, Iowa, has seen his share of weather extremes over the years, from drought to severe storms. But the stretch of wet weather that has followed a hot and dry July has been something different.
"This type of rain, this amount of rain since the end of July is, you know, pretty well unprecedented"
Now, it's slowing things down.
"We're just, just thinking about getting started to, you know, started going, and it's, you're waiting on this crop to dry down. The grain's got to dry down," Ross said.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture reports the rain has left farmers with just 1.7 suitable days for field work in the past week. That is the industry measure of when conditions are dry enough for farmers to safely use equipment. At this time last year, that figure stood at 4.9 days.
With more rain in the forecast, delays are expected to continue and could carry longer-term consequences.
"We had a tight supply overall across the country and, you know, and soybeans especially. These delays with another week of this wet weather, you know, soybeans take a while to dry out, they're not getting the new crop in, and a lot of tough decisions are having to be made on a business level," Ross said.
Despite the setbacks, Ross remains cautiously optimistic about what's in the field.
"I still think it's a really good crop out there. It's just going to be a matter of getting it in," Ross said.
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