Photo by CoCo Walters / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

Jeff Gaskill of River Farms harvests corn in a field of about 170 acres in Halls during a short window of sunlight late Tuesday afternoon.

Jeff Gaskill remembers a time in the late 1980s when his soybean harvest didn’t wrap up until around Christmas.

The Weston, Mo., area farmer said activity on his farm has slowed up recently due to the lingering cool, wet weather. The situation does remind him of that late harvest — something he doesn’t believe will occur quite so badly this time around.

Still, most of the fall work on Mr. Gaskill’s farm should have been finished by now. He and other farmers are stymied by muddy fields that mire the operation of combines and other equipment.

“We certainly got too much,” he said of continued rainfall that curtails his task. About 60 percent of Mr. Gaskill’s corn and soybean crop remains firmly rooted in the Halls bottomland.

“I’m more concerned about the soybeans,” he said.

A week to 10 days of nice weather would go a long way toward easing those worries. September would have been ideal because of the weather, but crops were not ready.

It’s a tale familiar to other Northwest Missouri farmers, said Bob Kelly, agriculture business specialist for University Extension’s St. Joseph office. The 2009 harvest is currently two to three weeks behind the pace of 2008, he said.

The region’s corn harvest is 30 percent finished, he said, while soybeans are 29 percent complete. Statewide, the corn harvest is 43 percent done — although it’s usually 80 percent finished. Missouri’s soybean harvest stands at 28 percent, compared to a normal of 51 percent. A total of 20 percent of the state’s winter wheat has been planted, contrasted with a normal of 56 percent.

Blame the rainfall, of course, for keeping farmers out of the fields. All 15 counties in Northwest Missouri for which Mr. Kelly is responsible reported higher-than-normal precipitation totals for the past month.

“We can’t get it dried down,” Mr. Kelly said. “When the ground’s wet, it doesn’t need much to keep it wet.”

Crop condition and moisture content will play a key role in the harvest’s quality.

“Most everything is falling into the excellent to good” range, Mr. Kelly reported. The condition of corn and soybeans have remained fairly uniform, he added.

Northwest Missouri crop conditions are faring much better than central Missouri, which is experiencing fair to poor quality.

“They had a lot more rain than we did,” Mr. Kelly said.

Moisture content in north Missouri corn is currently running at 19 percent — with 15 percent as a benchmark for sustaining damage. Some of the state’s corn crop moisture content has been rated at 25 percent, a figure that typically results in a tremendous dock on price.

Other indicators of condition and quality show some deterioration or at least its potential, such as discoloration to soybeans that leads to discolored soybean oil. Mold has started to appear in some of the corn.

It adds up to nervousness by foreign customers, who are starting to worry about soybean quality due to the late harvest.

As November begins, weather will continue to have a significant hand in determining when the field work may finish.

“I have not heard anybody make a guess,” Mr. Kelly said of estimating completion. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

Forecasts run the gamut of storms stacking up across the Pacific Northwest to a chance for extended dry weather early in the month.

Prices were off Wednesday on word that improved weather was in the offing, which could translate into good supplies of the crops. Bid prices tend to scale back on reports of good weather.

“Agriculture’s truly the supply/demand thing,” Mr. Kelly said.

By contrast, a renewed spate of wet weather will drive prices back up.

“That’s a normal occurrence,” he said of the cycle.

Crop prices will ultimately not settle until the harvest is fully complete. Higher field losses will result in reduced yields and eventually reduced consumption. Crops are stored to retain quality, since a product’s quality never improves once it reaches maturity.

Farmers will stay notoriously optimistic about the challenges set before them this harvest.

“Our producers have the ability to get it out quick” during favorable weather, Mr. Kelly added.

It’s always possible that a hard freeze will be a necessary prerequisite to finishing the harvest. Combines and other farm implements have become more sophisticated, but are still no match for soggy fields, Mr. Kelly said.

Ray Scherer can be reached

at rscherer@npgco.com.