Perfect Weather Forecast for Harvest

I was very pleased at the weather forecast I saw this morning. A slight chance of light rain today and then warm and clear skies through Tuesday! There is always a chance the forecast can change, but let's hope not. This is a perfect forecast to hopefully finish harvesting the 2016 crop and get the fall tillage done. There are some farmers that have finished, but many have a fair amount of corn to harvest yet.

The heavy rains in late summer and this fall have created some challenges. Many corn and bean fields have spots left unharvested because they were too wet. This forecast, if it holds, may even allow some of those areas to dry enough to get a combine through. My biggest concern is always a repeat of the Halloween Blizzard of 1991. It had been a nice harvest that year as the weather had been quite dry. I had the radio on in the milking parlor a couple of days before Halloween and I heard a major blizzard was on the way.

Unfortunately the weather forecast was accurate. We received 18 inches of snow, 30-40 mph winds and it dropped down to 10 to 15 degrees below zero! We had about 70 acres of corn left in the field. I will always remember what the field looked like the first time I saw it after the storm. The snow had drifted in the outside rows as high at the ears on the stalks! The weather did warm up and most of the snow did melt except the outside rows. We did get the corn harvested that fall, but had to leave the outside rows until spring.

The toughest thing about being a farmer is you never know for sure how much time you have before the weather turns against you. On the other hand, that is the exciting part too. Trying to beat the weather! If you are getting a little sleepy during the night all I have to do is think about my corn buried in snow drifts and I am wide awake again.