“The old saying is ‘rain makes grain,’” said John Waechter of Waechter Hay & Grain, and that’s what farmers in Lyon County and the surrounding areas are seeing.
Waechter said he grows corn, and his crop is good.
“It’ll be a good crop,” he said, adding that he anticipates getting between 150 and 220 bushels per acre. “That’s above average for this part of the country. It goes back to the rainfall that we had through the summer.”
Heavy rains through the summer did some damage to crops, especially in low-lying areas, but it’s better than no rain at all, Waechter said.
“Overall it’s far better to have rain than a drought,” he said. “In a drought you’ll raise nothing.”
This week’s rain has slowed harvesting on crops, Waechter said.
“The crop is out there,” he said. “We gotta wait for it to dry out until we go out again.”
Jerry Murphy of Bunge North America said the beans are of good quality and good yield this year.
“They’re a little better than last year as far as quality is concerned,” he said. “The wet weather helped it until now. Obviously the more moisture in Kansas for the soybean crop, the better you are. The moisture was timed right this year.”
Brian Rees, Lyon County Extension agriculture agent, said some of the crop that got hailed on in the southeast part of the county didn’t get planted and is getting about 10 bushels of beans or less.
“However, some of those that didn’t get hailed on have been in the 40s and 50s,” Rees said. “Corn has been well above average. I’m hearing a lot about the 130 to 150 range. I think there’s some better corn to come out. I wouldn’t doubt if we would have corn pushing 200 bushels as long as they didn’t have too many wet holes and drowned out spots.”
Rees said the rain this week is hindering the harvest of crops that are ready but is helping another crop — winter wheat.
“A lot of the wheat that was planted is up,” he said. “The rain is going to be extremely beneficial to that. What wheat is in the ground is really going to enjoy this.”
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