Soybean harvest is underway in Guthrie County.

Panora Heartland Co-op Manager Jason Eisenga says although conditions haven’t been the most ideal, farmers are getting great yields. “Most guys are trying to pick beans. Beans have been wet, so they’ve been slow coming in. Early beans have been pleasantly surprising, between 50-70 bushels per acre, I hear, but I doubt that amount will continue.” According to Iowa State Extension and Outreach, the 10 year average soybean yield in Guthrie County is 47 bushels per acre.

When talking about the corn harvest, Eisenga says he can’t predict when it’s going to start locally. That’s up to mother nature. “You tell me what the weather’s going to do and I’ll tell when the farmers are going to get excited. A lot of the corn is around 20 percent moisture and a lot of the guys are hesitant  to pick it at that moisture, because of the shrink and the discounts for drying that they would receive. If we get good weather over the next few days into the weekend and the rain holds off, we’ll probably see a steady increase from here on out of guys getting into the field.”

Remarking on the historically low current prices of soybeans and corn, Eisenga says there hasn’t been much selling going on locally. He expects many farmers to hold onto their crops for a while in hopes of a price rebound.