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Iowa farmer is still waiting to pick soybeans

North-central Iowa farmer April Hemmes says she’s still waiting to start harvesting soybeans.

“I have not picked a bean,” Hemmes says. “I have not combined one bean yet and I am in the majority here. Hardly anyone has done any beans.”

They’re not alone. Only 19 percent of Iowa’s soybean crop has been harvested, according to the weekly crop progress report. That’s the smallest mid-October harvest percentage for Iowa soybeans since records began, and the lowest number among the major soybean producing states.

Hemmes says she was looking at one of her best bean crops ever, “and I’m just watching it, not being able to get out there to it now. Hopefully those yields are still there.”

Hemmes says there’s some pod-splitting taking place.

“I don’t see the sprouted pods, like a lot of the guys I talk to in southern Iowa. But we’re going to have to get in there pretty quick, because the stalk quality is really going downhill.”

Hemmes says it’s the wettest year she’s every experienced.

She farms near Hampton, Iowa.

AUDIO: April Hemmes