Harvest continues to be a slow grind in the northwestern corn belt with the late crops. Pioneer Field Agronomist Larry Osborne says grain moisture in both corn and soybeans has been higher than the past few years, especially since a lot of the crop was immature when the first freeze hit. Farmers are being forced to dry the crop, which is adding cost and further slowing harvest progress.

He says the cold temperatures have made it possible for farmers to get across muddy fields, but this weather isn’t conducive for field drying the crops.

Osborne says farmers are also seeing lower yields than a year ago due to the late planting, but also because a large percentage of the crop was immature and was damaged by the mid-October freeze.

However, he says those yields are still better than many farmers expected with the tough growing season.