This regular feature provides an update of crop growing conditions from several farmers, along with happenings across the farm to ensure overall quality of their product.

The combines are parked, the soybean crop is out and now it’s time to reflect on what many Midwest farmers are deeming a smooth 2024 harvest season.  

“It was a good harvest,” said Nancy Kavazanjian, secretary/treasurer of Northern Soy Marketing (NSM) who farms in Beaver Dam, Wis. “The challenges actually came at planting time when we were so wet. But there weren’t a lot of challenges at harvest. If anything, it was almost too dry, so you had to take your time and make sure you didn’t shatter your beans.” 

Despite a dry harvest, there is heightened optimism surrounding the quality of soybeans.  

“It should be very good,” said NSM Chair Glen Groth, who farms in Winona County in southeast Minnesota. “We’re hopeful the storage quality will be good as well, so we should have some good quality beans.” 

A successful season doesn’t come without strategy. For Kavazanjian, those plans begin the second the crop is out of the field.  

“We start to look at our yield maps, looking for the areas where we didn’t have good crops to see what we can do to make those areas better, and, of course, some of that is weather related,” Kavazanjian said. “We’re going to be looking at what varieties performed the best for us and where we can do better.” 

Ensuring a good quality soybean also means making sure equipment is in tip-top shape, requiring some care in the offseason.  

“Right now, we’ve got to clean up equipment and make sure everything is in good working order,” Groth said. “We’ve got to figure out where we ended up financially and rest and recuperate to get ready for the next year.” 

The operation can’t be successful without some optimism in the view ahead.  

“We hope that next planting season could be better, but you never know,” Kavazanjian said. “The great thing about farming is you get to do it all over again in the next couple months.”