By Seth Naeve
With continued cold, cloudy, and rainy conditions across Minnesota, farmers are beginning to question when they will be able to get into the field to harvest their soybeans. Excessive rains have left fields at 100 percent field capacity.
With low evaporation and no transpiration to remove the water, fields will be very slow to dry. It is possible that the crop itself will be fairly dry by the time the soils will support combines, but certainly, soybeans will come off wetter than in most years.
Soybeans at 15 percent or greater moisture levels will not store well and will likely be docked heavily at the local elevators. Many farmers will be considering artificial drying of their crops this year.