By Jolene Farley
After a growing season with below average rain through July and above average rain in August, Rock County's harvest will be mixed, good and bad, this fall.
Yields so far are all over the board, according to Rock County Farm Services Director Roger Carlson.
"There is going to be a big variation in Rock County from one area to another," he said.
Carlson said many farmers were in the field earlier this week in the southern portion of the county, but in the northern portion of the county soybeans are too wet to combine.
"If rain would hold off in the next week," he said. "A lot (of farmers) would get started."
Jon Finke harvested 200 acres of soybeans from a field north of Steen on Monday.
He said he is pleased with yields so far.
"I was dry for awhile," he said. "But the rain came just in time, the way it looks."
In the northern portion of the county, beans and corn are shorter than in the rest of the county, according to Carlson.
"They might not be able to get the combine head down low enough to get them all," he said.
Rock County, along with Nobles County and Jackson County, applied for a federal drought disaster declaration in August.
Officials have not heard if Rock County is eligible for the declaration, according to Carlson.
Rainfall in southwest Minnesota was three to six inches below normal until an August storm dropped six inches of rain overnight. By the end of August, the area was four to eight inches above normal.
The August rain came too late to help most drought-stunted crops. Fields with sandy soil sustained more crop damage from the dry conditions earlier in the growing season.
"There is obviously some pressure to get some more disaster aid out there," said Carlson.
A disaster declaration, typically issued if there is 30 to 35 percent crop loss, would ensure farmers would be eligible for emergency loans through the Rock County Farm Service Agency and any additional compensation programs made available by Congress.
He said this year's crop prices are anyone's guess. Markets were up earlier this fall, but fell 14 cents on Monday. On the bright said, Carlson hopes this year's disasters will drive a price increase.