VALLEY CITY, N.D. — The wet fall has caused trouble for many farmers, and with a lot more work to do, time is growing short in the race against Mother Nature.
At Matt Gast's farm in Valley City, the combines and tractors have grown quiet.
And Gast can only wait before starting up another round of harvest.
"It's been a battle," said Gast. "Everything's been getting stuck. We have to load our trucks on the gravel roads and the township roads. We can't get trucks in the field to get them loaded."
To lessen the problem, Gast has been putting new tires on his combine and tractors to push through the mud and standing water.
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He said the amount of water he's seen this fall has been more than he’s seen in most springs, when runoff from flooding usually happens.
"The ground is so saturated there's just nowhere for it to go. It just sits on the surface, because the ground can't take it anymore," he said.
Gast's corn crops have already been hurt by late planting and a cool summer, and some of the crops he’s already harvested were from last year, as he couldn’t get to them before.
The lack of dry days, plus more wet weather coming his way, puts him in another tough spot.
"It’s just been a little bit of everything that has led up to where we are now," Gast said.
Even though his crops have been hit with everything, Gast is keeping his head up, and he wants other farmers to do the same, and to have hope for the harvest.
"Lot of tough times, stressful times for farmers right now, with the weather. There's nothing we can do about it," Gast said. "Just have to take it as it comes and hope for the best."
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