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Cooler weather slows crop drying in Michigan

A dry bean grower says harvest is still about two weeks away because of cooler weather in the Thumb.

Tuscola County’s Steve Ewald tells Brownfield, “It does kind of slow down the rate of maturity when it gets cooler.”

“Right now, the crop is made, it just might need some color and that kind of thing,” he shares. “But, we would still like some sunshine and dry days to kind of speed along that maturity.”

He says soybeans will almost be ready by the time dry beans finally dry down.

“I don’t anticipate getting into corn before the middle of October,” he says. “We’ll have soybeans ready starting in probably a couple of weeks, so we’re going to have definitely soybeans going the same time dry beans are ready.”

Ewald grows organic, non-GMO corn, popcorn, food-grade and feed-grade soybeans, and four different classes of dry beans on 3,700 acres in Unionville with his family.

In its latest crop progress report, USDA says five percent of sugarbeets in Michigan have been harvested, behind last year and the five-year average. Winter wheat planting is 14 percent complete.

Michigan’s corn is rated 55 percent good to excellent, with 62 percent dented and 10 percent mature.

Michigan’s soybean crop is rated 51 percent good to excellent, with 45 percent of the crop dropping leaves.