WELCH, Minnesota — The fields are quiet at Les Anderson's farm in southeastern Minnesota.
"With the beans, a little bit of rain shuts everything down pretty quick," Anderson said.
Anderson, president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, said he's probably two weeks behind normal. He's barely touched the soybeans and it rained again Thursday afternoon.
"By now we usually would like to be... wrapping up the beans and starting on corn. But it's not looking good with the weather coming in this weekend and stuff. So it's going to be pushing it even later yet," Anderson said.
A wet spring led to delays in planting and now a later harvest.
On Oct. 6, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Minnesota corn is 39% mature compared to 95% at this time last year. 8% of soybeans have been harvested compared to 36% last year.
"Harvest is going to be late," said David Nicolai, an educator in crops for University of Minnesota Extension.
Nicolai said the latest forecast will not help farmers. Northwestern Minnesota is looking to get snow and dropping temps and wind are expected throughout the state.
"When that snows, we can't run a combine or harvester through the field very easily and separate the seed from the plant. It's not as big of an issue on corn as it is on soybeans. On corn it's a little bit more forgiving," Nicolai explained.
Anderson said while snow wouldn't be ideal, frost could help his crops, saying, "That kills everything off and gets it ready for harvest. So that would be great if it would freeze."
Nicolai added, "If we do have a frost, that'll tend to even things out. However, there are some late planted fields in Minnesota because of late planting this spring and we will probably take some losses in terms of quality in yield, particularly in soybeans."
Nicolai also said many farmers will see an increase in costs to artificially dry the corn.
Anderson said he expects to have a decent yield from his crops in Welch and feels luckier than others.
Looking forward to next week, he said, "Just get back in the field I guess would be a major accomplishment... If we could have 60, 70 degrees that would be great but it doesn't look like that so if I was in the field next week, I'd be pretty happy."