Farmers prepare to harvest damaged crops
By James Lilias
Staff Reporter
With the rams and cooler tem
: peratures of the last few weeks sig
naling an end to the drought of 1988
and the coming of autumn, area
farmers are beginning to harvest
what’s left of the fruit of their labor
While the drought has damaged
all crops to some degree, soybeans
appear to be suffering the most
Harold Hummel, general manager
of Wavedy’s Farmers Cooperative
Co., said that much of the soybeans
he’s seen are of low quality and
yield
“I’ve seen beans ranging from
good to scmffy,” Hummel said
Bill Fahleson, who farms 1,100
acres of grain sorghum, soybeans
and wheat in rural Waverly, said he
agrees He said he hasn’t cut any
beans yet, but that he expects his
soybeans to be two to three times
smaller than they would be in a
normal growing season
Jerry Minchow farms650 acresol
soybeans, milo and wheat in rural
Davy He said that his beans had
also taken a blow from the heat.
“Soybeans are not a hot weather
crop,'1 Minchow said.
Minchow said that since he
knows that this year’s crops are hurt
badly, he hopes the rains of the last
week will continue into early Octo
ber, even though it would slow
down the harvest.
“I’m just worried about having
enough moisture for next year,"
Mm chow said.
Harold Anderson and his son
Ron farm just over 2,000 acres of
wheat, beans and irrigated and
dryland com outside of Waveriy
Harold Anderson said his beans
were a disappointment but he also
hopes last week’s rains will con
tinue to help the immature beans
develop a little more before he
harv ests them
“A good rain is going to help full
seeding,” Anderson said
But soybeans weren’t the only
crops to suffer, Anderson said
“Even our irrigated com won’t be
100 percent Hot wands hurt our
irrigation capabilities."
Fahleson said that while his miJo
did better than his beans, the milo
has weak stocks
“Sut weeks ago I didn’t think
we’d get anything,” Fahleson said
“What we did get was a gift ’
M inchow said he expects his
sorghum to be below average, loo.
Even so, Hummel said mat the
milo he’s seen did well, but there’s
nol enough of it harv ested 10 deter
mine whether it will yield as w ell as
it looks Hummel said that wheat
harvested in June and July did well
overall.
Fahleson, Anderson and
Minchow agreed that the wheat
harv ested had high yields for die
most part.
In a few weeks, the memories of
this summer’s drought will be re
placed by womes for die next year.
One of those concerns is already
upon these area farmers’ minds.
Hummel said these farmers will
need “a lot more moisture than
what we’ve got" this winter to make
up for the lack of it on soil and
subsoil this summer.
“We need a good cover of
snow,” Hummel said.
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David Fahlcaon/ Dally Ncl»ra«k«n
David Fahleson/ Dally Nebraskan
C lockwise from top: Custom harvester Albert Rahn of Lincoln
unloads mllo from nls combine north of Waverly. The drought of
1988 is producing soybean pods with only two developed beans.
Charcoal rotted mllo stalks, compared to normal stalks on the left,
are causing farmers to hope the severe weather holds off until the
crops are harvested. The rotted stalks are weak and will go down
in severe weather making harvesting difficult, if not impossible.