Harvest season is well under way, but the season has been sporadic for farmers throughout the Delta.
After an unusually wet spring this year, many farmers were either late getting their crops planted, leaving some with vast variations in their fields.
Agronomist with Mississippi State University’s Delta Research and Extension Service in Stoneville Wayne Ebelhar said due to the variations of planting times, there are some farmers still harvesting corn, while others are beginning to harvest soybean and rice.
“The recent dry weather has really put us in good shape, a lot of folks are getting a lot accomplished,” he said, noting some farmers are even getting started on fall field work putting out fertilizer. “They’re doing everything they can as quickly as possible.”
In an optimal year, Ebelhar said farmers would have been completely finished harvesting corn by now and farmers would have started harvesting soybeans in August.
A lot of corn, however, has struggled to just grow properly due to the harsh weather conditions it faced early on.
“Corn’s a lot shorter height-wise than I’ve ever seen it. Sometimes it’s 15 feet tall and this time some isn’t even 6 feet tall. It’s been a tough year,” he said.
Due to the weather conditions crops have faced this year, Ebelhar said some farmers have had to change up their typical harvesting routine.
While farmers are paid based on a combination of quality and quantity, Ebelhar said quality is more important.
“If a farmer has corn and beans and they have beans ready, they’ll stop on corn and get the soybeans because soybeans can’t stand much weather in the field before they start losing quality,” he said. “A good quality crop that is short is better than a high yield that’s poor quality.”
According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Mississippi weekly Crop Progress report released Monday, corn is not even halfway finished being harvested across the state.
Throughout the state, corn was 41% harvested and its condition was rated 39% good, 38% fair, 13% excellent and 9% poor. Soybean had not started harvesting and its current condition was rated 52% good, 27% fair, 16% excellent and 4% poor. Rice was 15% harvested and its condition was rated 69% good, 17% fair, 11% excellent and 2% poor.
Winterville farmer Bill Payne said he finished harvesting his corn early this month, and he wasn’t thrilled with the results he found.
Because of the rain and flooding the region faced earlier in the year, Payne said he faced a lot of “skips” in the field when he started the corn harvest.
“There were a lot of holes in the field with nothing there, especially where it was wet for so long,” he said.
The corn he was able to harvest, he said, was good quality and even better than what he produced last year.
“My good corn was pretty good and my bad corn was pretty bad, there were a lot of extremes.”
Payne said he expects to begin harvesting soybean sometime next week and he expects it will be early October before he is able to harvest cotton.
As for the quality of his soybean, Payne said he won’t know for sure until he starts cutting.
“Right now, I’m not real optimistic about my soybean,” Payne said, noting he has been watering his beans to try and keep them cool during the scorching temperatures the Delta has been facing in recent weeks. “It’s been a really hard year.”
Hollandale farmer Chico Williams said he, too, is finished harvesting corn and is in the waiting process to start tackling soybeans.
“We’re not as busy as we’d like to be. ... we harvested a few beans but now we’re just waiting for the rest, hopefully some will be ready to cut Monday.”
Because of the sporadic rains in the spring, Williams said the soybean will be harvested the way they were planted.
“The harvest this year is going to be more spread out and it’s going to be stop and go. It’ll be cut some, wait a while, cut some more because that’s the way they were planted. Normally we’d be wide open right now,” he said.
Soybean farmer Essie Patterson, of Essie Patterson Farms in Leland, said she, too, has been delayed with her usual progress, but she expects her crops to be ready to begin harvesting within the next three to four weeks.
“We’re getting there,” she said, noting that the soybeans she does have appears to be in good condition. “Just speaking for me, our beans are looking wonderful.”
As tractors and grain trucks travel on roads, Ebelhar said he wants to remind motorists to be patient, cautious and courteous.
“There’s a lot of equipment on the highway. Everybody needs to understand a farmer is trying to get that crop out of the field,” he said. “With a lot of this big equipment, they can’t stop on a dime. We don’t need any road rage, a farmer’s doing the best he can. It’s not been a good year for many farmers, so just be nice.”
