A snowy end to October is presenting another challenge to area farmers as they try to finish harvesting crops. Field agronomist Rebecca Vittetoe said the snow isn’t expected to linger, but farmers should still be careful about getting into fields that are wet and leaving ruts or causing compaction. She said to watch for wetter than normal soybean pods and corn husks, “Those pods could be a little bit wetter, or those husks on the corn could be wetter and it could cause some problems when we’re trying to harvest and trying to have that grain feed through the combine. So, just paying attention to that and kind of trying to make some adjustments with the combine. So it’s not going to be necessarily the easiest but it’s what Mother Nature gave us.”

Overall, 2019 has been a tough year for farmers in southeast Iowa from a very wet spring to an early snow during harvest, “Definitely not a normal year, it’s been a very challenging year from planting to now, even through harvest. And I know that there’s lots of farmers who are ready for this year to be over, so hopefully we can make it through it okay, and then next year will be hopefully better.” Before the snow fell in southeast Iowa, farmers had harvested 44% of the corn for grain and 52% of the soybeans.