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Crops still behind in Michigan’s thumb

A Michigan farmer says he’s preparing for a longer harvest season.

Jake Maurer grows sugarbeets, dry beans, wheat, and corn in Huron and Sanilac Counties.

“It seems like we’re 10 days behind on everything,” he shares.  “Our dry beans are not ready to desiccate yet and they were in by the 6^th or 7th of June, our corn seems to be later, it’s going to be a later fall I know that.”

He tells Brownfield too much moisture will likely mean below-average yields in many of his dry bean fields further from his home farm.

“Since just after the 4th of July weekend, we’re anywhere from 12 to 13 inches on the lower end up to 15, 16 on some of our stuff which is pretty significant,” he shares.  “We haven’t had those types of rainfalls in the summer in a long time.”

Maurer expects to start sugarbeet harvest in the coming weeks and is also concerned about how the moisture will impact sugar content.