'A good year': Recent weather helps Story County farmer during harvest
The little bit of rain we got Wednesday morning was enough to keep farmers out of their fields. But the day off was actually just what they needed.
The rain sprinkles across the soybeans in northern Story County brought combines to a halt for the first time in 20 days.
Story City farmer Kevin Larson is happy to get some moisture in the ground.
"I think it's turning out to be a good year,” said Larson.
He said it's good to keep the beans from getting too dry.
"The weather the last 10 days has made everything go better,” Larson said
Mark Licht, an extension cropping systems specialist at Iowa State, said soybeans need to keep a grain moisture of around 13%.
“The crop is quite variable depending on where you’re at in the state,” said Licht.
That percentage was starting to get too low for many central Iowa farmers before Wednesday morning’s rain.
“It’s really just a matter of getting grain moisture ready to go and efficiently harvest without having too much on the drying cost,” Licht said.
Larson said his farm hasn't really been impacted by the drought. It could be his farm's best year in a decade.
"We've probably got five or six days of soybean harvest left,” Larson said.
Next comes balancing the profits of a high yield against the rising cost of equipment.
Still, he considers himself lucky, as Larson knows others throughout the state haven't been as fortunate.
"We might get an inch and someone else might get two- or three-tenths, and we've been blessed all summer long, I think, for the most part,” Larson said.
Larson expects to get back into the fields today.