Farmers right now

[Lurch]

Likely it's too late already, but yes, they are trying to avoid frost. I just talked to my 86 year old grandfather yesterday, and he has been putting in 16 hour days the last few days trying to help my uncle finish. Late spring, cool wet summer and lack of sunny days delayed everything this year.

[Red]

It may have something to do with the weather we've had this year. The crops may be dry for the first time this year and winter is not that far ahead (remeber last year's snow in October?).

But what do I know, I am not a farmer either.
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[Tron_fdc]

I grew up on a farm, so you would think I should know this....

In actual fact I ran whenever it was hay bail tossin' time, and never really paid much attention to the intricacies of raising crops. However, I do remember something about needing 3 days of sunny weather before and after you cut you crops so they don't spoil. Because of the amount of rain this summer it has been pretty hard for farmers to achieve that.

I dunno though. Me stoopid.

[octothorp]

Various crops have different moisture levels that you have to surpass before the crops can be harvested. Every morning you go out and combine a little, put it in a moisture-tester and see if it's dry enough. It can sometimes take two or three days of dry weather before a crop can be combined, so a stretch like the current streak of almost a week without precipitation is really important; it's possible that it's the last such-streak we'll get before any hard frosts--most crops can survive light frosts, but repeated light frosts or anything down around -5 or worse can be disasterous. While heavy snowfalls can kill the harvest, light snowfalls generally aren't as big a concern as the frost.

[Homer_J]

Ya, they're in a rush to finish while the good weather lasts. Frost is on it's way. Harvest is really late this year due to all the wet weather. That being said, I remember a couple years back my Dad was out finishing harvest in December because the fall was too wet, so this is nothing.

[Cowperson]

There were great crops out there with pretty heavy yields - the first time in about four or five years the moisture was there through the summer - but the quality of the crop has probably gotten hammered in the last few weeks as farmers haven't been able to get out there and knock it down or combine it for the bin.

That's probably the theme you'll read when this harvest is done - large volume, low quality.

Cowperson

[BlackArcher101]

They planted late because of the weather, then the summer was unseasonly cool, so they had to keep the plants in the ground as long as possible. Hence the mad rush for the finish line before the frost comes and makes it all useless.