16 November 4, 2014 2014 LOGAN COUNTY FARM OUTLOOK MAGAZINE LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com
The up-side-down harvest
Is it a new trend, or just history repeating itself?
Story and by Nila Smith
W
hether it be better than the last
two years, or worse; one might
not want to venture a guess.
But the fact is this is a different year for
farmers, one that they haven’t seen in a
while.
Summer was almost non-existent, and the
hottest weather of the year arrived in late
August, and even then only lasted a week
or so.
Spring was cold, following an
unusuallycold winter leaving a deep
permafrost, soil temperatures were slow to
rise, making corn planting late.
Throughout the summer, the land was
blessed with rain like it hasn’t seen in the
last few years, but as fall approached the
blessing became a plague. With each day
Continued
→
Fields north of Lincoln were part of many in Logan County that
were harvested in portions related to seed moisture or soil too wet,
threatening soil compaction. There is that critical point when the
safest choice is to begin harvest. Numerous farm implements were
stuck in wet fields all over central Illinois following heavy September
rains over already moist soils.
Photo by Jan Youngquist
