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Rain stretches out harvest for eastern Iowa farmer

An eastern Iowa farmer says a more than two week delay this fall stretched his harvest out.

Jeff Pape grows corn, soybeans, and custom farms near Dyersville in Dubuque County.

“We started on soybeans in September and thought we were going to get done and (maybe) even have a little break before going into corn.  Then we hit a 15-day rain delay and didn’t turn a wheel.”

He tells Brownfield it was frustrating waiting for conditions to dry out.

“We did get soybeans off for everybody on time.  Got into corn and probably finished up about a week later than normal, so not bad.  However, there were some other farmers still working on it.”

Pape says corn yields were off a little compared to last year’s outstanding crop, and soybean yields averaged about nine bushels less than 2016.