By Virgil Schmitt
When harvest begins in Earnest...
Just to show you that I have a firm grip on the obvious, wet weather has substantially delayed harvest. The good news is that it appears we are going to see some drier weather headed our way after Thursday of this week. The NOAA Climate Prediction Center is projecting below average precipitation after this week. Here is a link to the 6-10 day forecast and the 8-14 day outlook. A new 30-day outlook appears here on the first and middle of each month. The Seasonal Outlook is here, also updated twice each month. Excluding the winter months, October and November are usually the driest months of the year, so projecting below average precipitation bodes well for a good harvest, once harvest begins.
Meaghan Anderson, Angie Rieck-Hinz, and Rebecca Vittitoe, all of which are my counterparts elsewhere in Iowa, have assembled some excellent thoughts. I'll pass them along here, with some additions and a little editing.
Take care of yourself.
This is the most important thing to remember this fall. No crop is worth serious injury or death. Pay attention to your stress level, take frequent breaks, be conscious of your surroundings, and take time to operate safely. Several reminders can be found here. Remember to share the road when moving equipment from one location to another; look here. And if you get stuck, follow the safe procedures outlined here.
Lodging/leaning
Harvest is likely to be slow in some fields as the corn and soybeans lodge/lean. Consider scouting by foot or using a drone to determine the direction things are leaning and whether it is worth harvesting against the lean/lodging to get more crop in the head/platform. This can also help spot potential trouble spots like standing water.
Deteriorating stalk and stem quality
Many corn and soybean fields are experiencing rapidly declining stalk/stem quality. Scout each genetic package in each field, and queue fields with the poorest stalk/stem quality up to be harvested earliest. Look here.
Source : iastate.edu