Farm Horizons Farm Horizons 12/16 | Page 24

Farm Horizons • Dec. 5, 2016 • Page 24 Photo by Marie Zimmerman Corn comes off the field in rural Brownton in October. A wet summer led to sticky field conditions in many places, but helped bolster yields. Harvest 2016: wet fields, high yields By Marie Zimmerman Downright miserable to decent. That’s the 2016 harvest review from the area, farmers battling wet field conditions and drownouts, but often coming out ahead with high yields on corn and soybeans. “I think what we ended up with this year was a lot of variability across the landscape,” said David Nicolai, area crop extension educator with University of Minnesota Extension. Rain was the theme throughout the summer. Precipitation data gathered by volunteer-based observation networks throughout Minnesota for the Minnesota Climatology Working Group paints the soggy picture: The combined county average for Wright County was 28.3 inches from May through September. In the same period, Carver had a combined county average of 31.72 inches, Meeker had 26.4 inches and McLeod got 27.74 inches. Heavy rainfall and storm damage caused crop losses, and the extra precipitation kept some growers out of the fields later into fall, Nicolai said. Fields were sticky on the border between Meeker and McLeod counties where Jay Mackedanz runs about 1,300 acres of corn and soybeans. “Miserable” was the word he used to describe harvest, one of the worst in the decade since he started renting his own ground. Only 2009, with its late harvest, rivals this year, Mackedanz said. “The good part is harvest is early this year,” he said, with his combining mostly complete the first week of November. At mid-November, corn for grain harvest was four