The harvest is on!

This is why when people say don't hunt the early season that can be really bad advice. I feel like since I've been pheasant hunting, more often than not at the season opener I can find a field where most of the surrounding crops are out. The old saw about opener being too warm to hunt and too many standing crops are in is the rare exception to the rule. Last year the early season was really good in MN, hoping that plays out again🤞
 
It appears that it will be an early harvest here in SD. Beans are being combined and I've even seen some corn being combined. I haven't heard what the moisture content is on the crops but with the dry weather we have been having they should dry down fairly fast. There is rain moving into the state later this week and it looks like some are could get up to 3". Other areas not much.
 
Dakotazeb said:
It appears that it will be an early harvest here in SD. Beans are being combined and I've even seen some corn being combined. I haven't heard what the moisture content is on the crops but with the dry weather we have been having they should dry down fairly fast. There is rain moving into the state later this week and it looks like some are could get up to 3". Other areas not much.
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16% in my area…corn
 
Bob Peters said:
This is why when people say don't hunt the early season that can be really bad advice. I feel like since I've been pheasant hunting, more often than not at the season opener I can find a field where most of the surrounding crops are out. The old saw about opener being too warm to hunt and too many standing crops are in is the rare exception to the rule. Last year the early season was really good in MN, hoping that plays out again🤞
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I've observed over the course of almost 30 years pheasant hunting that our October hunting has most definitely changed. Its much warmer, and there's "usually" far more crops remaining than there traditionally used to be. While it may not necessarily be the case every year, both of those factors have altered my hunting in October over this time span. For this specific reason, I believe that Minnesota should alter its pheasant season to more closely align with SD or Iowa. It really should not be opening in mid October anymore. It should open in late October and continue until at least the second week in January, not January 1. I've contacted the DNR about this for years too. I'm not sure about you, but I'd much rather hunt in January when its 20 degrees and no crops than in October when its 75 and there's still crops. Maybe just personal preference, but most dogs would also function a lot better in cold than in warm.
 
Bob Peters said:
This is why when people say don't hunt the early season that can be really bad advice. I feel like since I've been pheasant hunting, more often than not at the season opener I can find a field where most of the surrounding crops are out. The old saw about opener being too warm to hunt and too many standing crops are in is the rare exception to the rule. Last year the early season was really good in MN, hoping that plays out again🤞
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I was just in western Minnesota. The harvest is on.
 
I have received 4 inches of rain in the past 2 days. Aint no harvesting gonna be happening for quite a while now. Its a mud hole out there.

Last week I drove from the Twin Cities to Grand Forks and back. There was a lot of bean harvest once I got close to Fargo and then north of there. Further east and south, very little.
 
For those of you who don't know where to find the crop harvest report here it is:

USDA - National Agricultural Statistics Service - South Dakota - Crop Progress and Condition

USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Information. NASS publications cover a wide range of subjects, from traditional crops, such as corn and wheat, to specialties, such as mushrooms and flowers; from calves born to hogs slaughtered; from agricultural prices to land in farms. The agency...
www.nass.usda.gov www.nass.usda.gov

and here is report for this week 9/25:

 
Seems like corn harvest is well behind last year. With northern part of the state up near Aberdeen getting a bit of snow, think that will slow it down even further?
 
When I looked at the October 22nd crop report it showed beans were almost done at 90% which was ahead of schedule and corn was at 48% which was right in line with average. Sorghum was at 65% and sunflower at 23%. I had hoped more corn would come out by now but it is what it is. Can’t wait to get to so dak next week and hunt.
 
BigRand said:
Went out yesterday around Sioux Falls. Every field is wet. Saw zero combine activity.
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In further east in Central MN and I was out on Monday working on some things where I will be deer hunting (and subsequently pheasant hunting). I didn't see a single corn field harvested yet. Literally, not one. And I saw a couple bean fields still standing too.

Everything was a mud hole. Even when the sun comes out, the field doesn't dry out very quickly. We've had so much rain here the past month that I'm wondering if any of these crops are going to be harvested before winter. I've received over 15 inches of rain since the last week of September.
 
Hunted around Pierre opening weekend. Beans mostly combined, more corn, sunflowers, and milo still in the field than in the bin. Still had a good time though.
 
There are “hard” freezes beginning tonight in SoDak with lows in the teens. That should help get them going again in the fields.
 
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