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by Susie Taylor

That may not be how the old-time children’s song went, but farmers throughout Ohio and the Corn Belt could have been singing up a storm this year.

According to the most recent Ohio crop weather update, farmers across the state reported surplus soil moisture in 19 percent of their cropland. The ground had dried a bit from the week before when soil moisture was measured at 23 percent, but the same week last year showed 8 percent soil moisture.

"We planted when it was wet, sprayed when it was wet and harvested when it was wet," according to Edward Elliott, who farms 1,150 acres with his family in southern Hardin and northern Union counties.

"It was extremely wet all year," he said, adding that soybean yields are down seven to nine bushels per acre, while corn yields seem a little better than normal. His soybean harvest is complete while corn harvest was about half done at press time.

Buckeye Farm News contacted six farmers throughout Ohio to get reports on how harvest has gone this year. Most all of them said the wet weather hindered the crops this growing season, while the warm, wet fall weather helped the winter wheat crops get established for the winter.

And as far as hay went, Elliott said his production this year was "pathetic. It’s hard to dry hay when it rains every three days." He said the family will bale corn stalks as roughage for their brood cows this year, and he’s looking forward to a good freeze to allow him to get equipment on wet ground without harming it from compaction.

In Allen County, Jay Begg’s 550 acres has had average soybean and corn yields. "I guess I thought I was going to have a record harvest when I was looking at things in September, but when we finally got out, yields were closer to 45 (bushels an acre)."

Begg has been finished with harvest since the first week of November, and overall, the crop looked better than it really was. But he’s got high hopes for his wheat. "It looks really good."

USDA crop progress reports show corn at 74 percent completed for the week ending Nov. 9, about 9 percent behind the five-year average. Soybean harvest is 96 percent complete, which is right on target for the five-year average. Winter wheat is 100 percent planted with 94 percent emerged and the crop estimated at 76 percent good to excellent.

In Medina County, Steve Arters farms 1,400 acres and was 90 percent done with beans and 10 percent done harvesting corn the first week of November.

He said his early-planted soybeans are yielding higher than those planted later because they were hit with a hard frost Oct. 1. "Our corn looks really good," he said. "We’re getting about 150 (bushels an acre) dry."

Farther north in Ohio’s Snow Belt, Trumbull County’s Eric Campbell hadn’t started corn harvest by the first week of November.

"We just finished beans today (Nov. 7), and the yields did fine for us," he said. "We had some fields as high as 55 (bushels an acre), but the beans we took off today were the last beans we planted, and they got about 28."

He continued: "This was a challenging year -- the worst year we’ve had for making hay for quite some time." He said they lost 4,000 bales of first cutting hay because of weather. "We had seven days straight of rain on it."

The jury is still out on the corn crop for Gene Baumgardner of Fairfield County. He farms 2,200 acres in Fairfield, Franklin and Licking counties.

"I’m afraid we’re doing a lot of damage to our fields this fall," he said. "They’ve retained water all summer. We’re having to pick and choose our fields; some will have to wait for a freeze until we can get in them."

Baumgardner said his soybeans "got through in decent shape. Our ground conditions were suitable with just a few delays, but we got along relatively well." Some of his soybean yields were really good while others were "mediocre. That’s representative of our planting season. We started planting beans the 27^th of April and finished the 26^th of June."

This year offered its frustrating moments, but "all in all, I’m not upset about our soybean yields," he said.

As of Nov. 7, Tony Anderson in Fayette County was down to within 200 acres of finishing harvest. His family farms a little more than 2,000 acres in Fayette, Pickaway and Madison counties.

High soybean prices may be a saving grace for some farms this year, especially with reduced yields. "All our friends in northern Illinois and North Dakota said their beans were bad. As much as I am a believer in the demand market, it is absolutely supply that has driven (soybean) prices up," he said. "But if we didn’t have such a huge demand out there, our shortness of supply would be plenty to keep us going from one year to the next."

His corn crop this year has been "wonderful. I’ve had a riot shelling corn this year. I don’t think I’ve ever had this much fun shelling corn," he said. But he still had some challenges. "It’s almost embarrassing to say that we’re accustomed to 160 to 180 bushels on the (combine yield) screen. I’m excited about it. We’ve been very fortunate this year with corn."

He continued: "Every year we stand a chance to lose part of the crop due to weather. This year, a 10 percent loss will cost us a lot more. We’ve been on pins and needles getting this crop in. It cost a little more to get this crop in the bin but we have had a lot to lose and pushed pretty hard to get it in the bin."