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Varying maturity in crops complicate harvest

A central Ohio farmer says soybean harvest has been more challenging due to the multiple replants this spring.

John Linder says he’ll have to go back into some fields later because he had to plant different maturity levels.

But, he says, the soybeans he has seen so far are better than expected.

“The first soybeans we cut looked really good and it was one of the farms that it was well over 20 days before those beans came out of the ground,” he says. “But, they came out, they had a nice and even stand and they were really good.”

He tells Brownfield he volunteered for a study with a soybean and small grains specialist at Ohio State University this year who studied variable rate and harvest-related issues that can reduce yields, like pods shatter.

He says he was pleased with the results.

“For as dry as soybeans were and the potential for shatter loss, they said our losses were very minimal,” he says.

Linder says the rain that is in the forecast this week is welcomed and could help his crops finish strong.

Audio: John Linder, Ohio farmer