Rick Barrett

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin’s fall harvest has been slowed by rain that’s kept farmers out of muddy fields but hasn’t put much of a damper on the crops.

As of Monday, the state’s soybean harvest was nearing completion, although work in some fields was delayed by wet soil.

Farmers were battling mud as they worked to harvest corn wherever possible, the National Agricultural Statistics Service office in Madison said in its weekly crops report.

Just over half of the state’s corn for grain has been harvested, two days behind last year at this time and slightly behind the five-year average. Eighty-six percent of the crop was reported in good to excellent condition.

“Our yields have been good, but I would not say excellent,” said Bob Roden, who farms in Ozaukee and Washington counties.

Results vary from farm to farm. However, in general, the fall harvest has moved slower than usual.

“Widespread heavy rain (last) Wednesday, and intermittent showers over the weekend, stalled fieldwork yet again. Temperatures were above normal, but overcast conditions and reduced daylight kept fields from drying out,” the weekly crops report noted.

The wet weather resulted in “major concerns” for soybeans still in the field, a Shawano County crops observer said in the report.

“With water standing on low spots, it will take a week of dry weather to get things going again,” a Waupaca County crops observer said.

Regardless, the harvest will continue as soon as possible.

“Four-wheel-drive combines have been a must this fall. There are a lot of ruts that farmers will have to deal with when doing their fall tillage,” a Manitowoc County crops observer said.

Thanksgiving is an unofficial target date for having crops harvested in advance of winter.

With bigger harvesting equipment, improvements in plant genetics, and favorable weather, much of the corn should be in the grain bin in the next couple of weeks — reducing the risk of damage to the crop from rain, wind and snow.

However, some years, farmers are still in the fields in early December, with snow and mud making for miserable harvest conditions.

“There may be some farms that will need to wait until the ground freezes to finish harvesting crops,” the Manitowoc County observer said.

Wisconsin’s apple harvest is nearly finished, according to growers.

“We are wrapping things up right now,” said Joe Ferguson, who's with Ferguson’s Orchard in Galesville.

An early spring frost nearly wiped out some orchards and damaged much of the crop in others. Overall, though, it’s been a good year for apples.

Nationwide, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has forecast the corn and soybean crops at 15.1 billion bushels and 4.27 billion bushels, respectively. If achieved, those yields would be the highest in U.S. history.

As in Wisconsin, however, wet weather has slowed the harvest in large swaths of the Midwest.