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Michigan harvest progress behind last year and five-year average

A southeastern Michigan farmer says he just started harvesting soybeans on Monday.

Brad Kamprath grows corn, soybeans, and wheat just north of the Ohio border in Monroe County.

“We had that inch rain last Wednesday, Thursday, so field conditions are not perfect, but they’re not bad yet either,” he says. “That’s part of the reason I’ve held off beans already yesterday, but fields were not.”

From the combine, Kamprath tells Brownfield recent cool, wet weather kept crops greener than he expected for most of September.

“A month ago I was saying we’re going to start combining in two weeks, and I said that for two weeks straight so it’s slowed it down a lot,” he says.

In its latest crop progress report, USDA says Michigan’s corn crop is rated 56 percent good to excellent, with 30 percent mature.

Michigan’s soybean crop is rated 47 percent good to excellent, with 70 percent of the crop dropping leaves and 11 percent harvested.

Eleven percent of sugarbeets in the state have been harvested, and 22 percent of winter wheat planting is complete.