Mother Nature welcomed farmers back to the fields this past week with an Indian Summer invitation to make some progress on harvesting corn and beans. However, with the October monsoons that left grain soaked, molded, and sprouted, corn and beans will require time to dry out. It is not profitable to spend an extra $100 per acre to dry corn that may be sold at barely breakeven prices initially.

Unfortunately the delays caused by the late maturing crop and the extra ten inches of rain are beginning to mount up. And those delays this fall will even create ripples that farmers will feel next spring. In addition to the unbudgeted drying expense, the crop is getting smaller and quality is deteriorating. The October USDA Crop Report forecast a corn crop that would exceed 13 billion bushels. When the November Crop Report is issued on Tuesday, watch for the size to fall below 13 billion bushels and continue to shrink into the final report in early January.

The delays in harvest have resulted in field losses of corn and beans where fungi have attacked the integrity of stalks and molds have expanded within ears of corn and soybean pods. Additionally, those fields that were not mature when cold temperatures brought that process to a halt will result in lower test weights. That means it will take more grain to make a bushel, subsequently, the number of bushels produced this year will decline. North Dakota is not a major corn growing state, but 60% of the crop was immature when the first freeze arrived, and only 2% of that state's crop has been harvested. And winter is knocking on the Dakota door.

Throughout the Cornbelt, only 35% of the soybeans were harvested at the outset of the week, and that means delays in getting wheat planted. If a field is still full of beans, wheat cannot be planted, and last Monday only 35% of the expected 2010 wheat crop had been planted.

According to federal crop insurance policy regulations, 2010 crop year wheat should already have been planted to qualify for coverage. And just this week, the USDA clarified its regulations for 2009 insurance coverage for corn and soybean crops. The insurance policy coverage terminates on December 10 and many farmers are expected to still be harvesting beyond that date. USDA indicated the coverage will end on December 10, but farmers should alert their agent about the delays in harvest, and instead of filing a claim, continue to harvest as much grain as possible to determine if any indemnity checks would have to be paid.

One of the major headaches for area farmers whose harvest season is just beginning is the fact that the fall fertilizer season should have already begun, and hasn't. To save time in the spring, many fields that will be planted to corn next year would get a partial application of nitrogen in the form of anhydrous ammonia. That application and some light tillage would prepare fields for spring planting. However, that won't happen on most farms this year, if soils freeze before crops are out of the field.

Even with the harvest delays, University of Illinois soil fertility specialist Fabian Fernandez is recommending against the application of anhydrous ammonia because of the unusually wet soils. He says the furrow behind the applicator tines will not close properly to capture the pressurized gas, and the soil is so wet that the ammonia will quickly bond with it and not properly disperse through the soil. That means areas of concentrated nitrogen and other areas without any.

The weather delays will also have a major impact on the health of farmers. The need to finish harvest and any possible fieldwork will create major psychological and physiological stress on individuals. Workdays of eighteen or more hours for the next several weeks will take heavy tolls on the health of farmers and their families. And both weariness and unfinished farm business will also mean smaller than usual crowds at the Nov. 24th Illinois Commodity Conference and Illinois Farm Bureau annual meeting in early December.

For a farm family, weather makes all the difference, and crop insurance is not always a cure-all.