The frustration for the farmers is probably very high again this year. Last fall saw a slow harvest dealing with wet, snow, cold, and heat. This year has proven to be much the same.
Following a hot, dry summer harvest started off with rain and more rain. This was followed by an early October snowstorm. By the time that the snow came farmers still had many of the crops left to harvest ranging from soybeans, canola, some wheat, potatoes, sunflowers, corn and beets. All buried by snow and some fall flooding.
Just as the harvest resumed there was another round of showers adding to the already saturated fields.
Tuesday morning Valley News & Views went out in search of a harvest picture. There was a spitting rain mixed with some snow while traveling the few miles in search of harvest action. Although there were a few trucks hauling beets at the time there was very little else going on in the area that was driven. The observations of the fields, however, were that almost every field had standing water and there was still very visible snow in the ditches and on the edges of some fields. The very lowest spots in many of the fields looked like they had rivers running through them and some looked like they had small ponds standing in their fields.
The country roads were also very saturated and muddy making driving in some spots a little difficult at times. This only poses a minor inconvenience for someone just driving down the road. For farmers who are trying to get in and out of the fields with equipment and trucks it can be a far bigger issue. All adding to the difficulties and frustration that goes along with a year where farmers are struggling to get their crops harvested.