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Mother Nature halts harvest for Ohio soybean farmer

A northwest Ohio farmer says Mother Nature has put their harvest on hold.  “I’m staring out the window of my office here right now and looking at water standing in the field.”

Nathan Eckel says harvest is about 75% complete in his area.  “Yields have been good overall, and soybeans have been sporadic,” he says.  “Some of those late spring rains really hurt some of these soybeans.  Corn yields have been pretty much consistent across the board, which have been doing really well.  We’re a little bit over our average yield on the corn yields.”

He tells Brownfield he’s been battling some green stem issues in soybeans.  “When we were first harvesting soybeans, the stems were green and some of the leaves were on these beans,” he says.  “But the beans were 12% — and we got them through the combine.”

Eckel says they also saw some tar spot settle in, but it came in late enough it didn’t take too much off of yields.  However, he says, it’s likely something they will continue to battle in the year ahead.

AUDIO: Nathan Eckel, Ohio soybean farmer