Ohio farmers expected to have decent harvest

10/10/2011

COLUMBUS — Ohio farmers say they’re enjoying a better than expected harvest following a growing season with one challenge after another.

Ohio Farm Bureau Federation spokesman Joe Cornely says corn and soybeans yields should be fairly normal, despite conditions he says could have spelled “out and out disaster.”

The Columbus Dispatch reports farmers first had to deal with a rainy spring that hampered planting. Then, a sizzling summer was hard on crops, and that was followed by a cool and wet September that fostered disease.

Cornely tells The Associated Press that farmers withstood all the adverse weather thanks to technological innovations, including seeds that are more weather-tolerant.

Corn specialist Peter Thomison with the Ohio State University Extension says farmers now hope to finish the harvest before the first frost.