Bean harvest better than expected
Staff writer
Farmers were working like crazy this past week bringing in the bean harvest and sowing wheat before another rain came along Sunday night.
It has turned out to be a wet harvest, with slow, soaking rains that kept farmers out of the fields for days on end. They sometimes fought soft ground to bring in the crop.
Monte Stuchlik of Lost Springs and his sons, Ross and Daniel, were among those combining late into the night for several days last week.
Daniel was harvesting a field of double-crop beans Sunday at 320th and Sunflower Rds. He was operating an S-67 Gleaner with a 35-foot header and a 300-bushel bin.
He was filling in for Terry Vinduska, who generally runs the combine but had a conflict.
Daniel’s 14-year-old son, Tanner, and wife, Melissa, sometimes pull a grain cart for on-the-go unloading.
Monte was operating a same-size John Deere 9770 in another location.
“This is the year that no-tilled really shined,” Daniel said, noting that no-tilled fields carried combines a lot quicker than conventionally tilled fields.
“However deep the soil was worked, that’s how deep the rain went,” he said.
Monte Stuchlik said they have been pleasantly surprised at how well the crop is doing despite the dry summer.
“It’s amazing they are doing what they are doing,” he said. “We are very fortunate.”
Full season beans were yielding between mid-30s to mid-40s, and double crop beans were yielding between the mid-20s and mid-30s.
He said the whole season has been an unusual, stressful time.
“It’s been a trying year from the get go,” he said. “We were hauling water to four pastures from the day the cattle were turned out.”
According to Jeff Naysmith, agronomist for Cooperative Grain and Supply, the soybean crop has turned out so well because rain came at the most critical time, which is between late July and mid-September.
He said soybeans became popular after Roundup Ready seeds were introduced in 1996. Seeds were developed in the state that worked in the Kansas climate.
“The yield trend all over the country has been up and up,” he said.
He has heard reports of the crop yielding anywhere from 40 to 70 bushels per acre.
After a small shower overnight Sunday, farmers were hoping to get back into fields soon, but more precipitation is in the forecast, promising a continued bumpy harvest.