Farmers fight dry, warm weather as harvest season begins

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (CBS 58) – It has been a tough season for our local farmers. Back in July, they battled wet conditions, but now it's the dry and warm weather causing problems for their crops.

"We have kind of struggled throughout the whole season," said Bryan Neeb, operations manager of Majestic Crossing Dairy in Sheboygan.

It's day one of the harvest season for Bryan Neeb.

"As far as the harvest goes, it's pretty early to tell what our official yields are going to be for the season, but definitely substantially less than what they would have been," said Neeb.

Dry weather is often ideal for harvesting.

"The conditions are great as far as getting out here and getting the crop off," said Neeb.

However, this prolonged dry and warm weather is also making Neeb have to pick up the pace.

"Things are drying out relevantly rapidly, maybe not finishing out as well as they could," Neeb explained.

Agronomist Chris Reichert, with Country Vision Coop in Sheboygan, says it's been a shorter growing season.

"Our crops were planted later because of the wet spring. We have seen some issues now, where the dryness has limited some of the yield potential because the plant is either dying or maturing much quicker, not allowing that grain to completely fill out," Reichert explained.

The biggest challenge has been the inconsistency in crops.

"There are areas that are really good, really nice and green, great yielding, and then there are a lot of areas that are poor, short height, poor cob size, and same things in the beans," said Reichert.

Even with the challenges Neeb has faced this year, he says he believes he will have enough to feed his dairy cows through the year.