Expert says harvest will be long

The cool summer and wet conditions could make for a long harvest for local farmers, according to one agriculture expert.

“The corn is high moisture and the beans are tough. This is going to be a long harvest this year,” said nationally known farm commentator Max Armstrong. “We’ll have people in the field yet at Thanksgiving.”

Armstrong was in Oregon Oct. 4, making his annual appearance at the Autumn on Parade Festival and visiting with old friends and new on the Ogle County Courthouse lawn.

“East of the Mississippi it’s going to be slow-going,” Armstrong told Terry Martin, Waterman, who stopped to talk shop. “I worry about it because we tend to have more accidents in this kind of weather when people are hurrying to get done.”

The harvest will be a different story west of the Mississippi where the summer was warmer and yields are expected to be very good, he said.

Agriculture is doing fairly well despite the dismal economy, Armstrong said.

“We’re holding up seasonably well in ag even though prices have been dropping,” he said.