Large clouds of hot, dry soybean dust emanated Saturday afternoon, Sept. 14, from a field along State Route 235, part of a DeGraff-area farm.
Working to harvest soybeans over the weekend were Steve, Chris, Kameron, Micah and Layton Schlumbohm, and David Strayer.
The Schlumbohms and other farmers around the state are dealing with varying degrees of drought conditions.
Currently, about 77 percent of Ohio is experiencing drought conditions. Most of Logan County is under severe drought (D2) conditions, the U.S. Drought Monitor shows.
The monitor — a partnership between National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — works on a scale from D0 (abnormally dry) to D4 (exceptional drought).
This is the first year since the inception of the monitor in 2000 that exceptional drought D4 conditions have been recognized in the state, an article by morningagclips.com stated.
The USDA Farm Service Agency has declared 22 counties in southern and Southwest Ohio as natural disaster areas. Another 16 contiguous counties are eligible for emergency loan assistance through the agency, the Dayton Daily News reports.
“As far as schedule, we are ahead of schedule and chasing them (soybeans) as fast as we can go because of such a fast dry down rate,” Steve Schlumbohm related via text.
The soybeans are drying down extremely dry, drier than normal which can affect yields by weight and shatter loss of the combine head, Schlumbohm said.
Despite the conditions, “we have had good yields,” he said, but added, “we need rain to put moisture back into the beans.”
