With about half of the corn and soybean crop harvested in Audrain County, the general consensus is that yields are looking strong.

According to the county Farm Bureau president Clarissa Cauthorn, corn yields are consistent, trending toward above average almost across the board although it took the grains longer to dry. Beans are extremely dry, but the yield pattern has been more variable.

“There’s been some spotty rain,” said Mary Sobba, Agriculture Business Field Specialist at the University of Missouri Extension Center. Still, she confirms, second hand reports on both crops are average to above.

Scattered rain over the summer accounts for some of the yield totals closer to average.

Many farm operations expect to complete harvest earlier, as well – especially compared to last year, when the process continued well into December. The USDA reports that across the state, 40 percent of soybeans were in, compared to the five-year average of 36 percent. The pace is lagging when it comes to corn harvested for grain rather than biofuel statewide. Harvest stands at 64 percent complete, down from the five-year point of 74 percent.

In an average year, when such a thing occurs, crops are in by the middle of November.

If there’s an issue looming, it is drying soil. USDA’s measure of topsoil moisture in Missouri revealed that 54 percent of farmland rated short or very short.

“We could really use some rain,” Cauthorn said. “But it’s going to be OK.”

Other problems range from the usual – “there’s always labor shortages in agriculture, especially when you have a good crop,” Cauthorn explained – and the potentially dire.

Farms in neighboring counties suffered three combine fires last week alone, Audrain’s Farm Bureau president pointed out. And there have been at least 11 in the state this harvest season.