Michigan's harvest is running behind both last year's pace and the five-year average, and for growers in the southeastern corner of the state, the 2024 harvest is only now getting underway in soybean fields.

Brad Kamprath, who grows corn, soybeans, and wheat just north of the Ohio border in Monroe County, says he started harvesting soybeans on Monday. Field conditions, he says, are workable but far from ideal after recent weather.

"We had that inch rain last Wednesday, Thursday, so field conditions are not perfect, but they're not bad yet either," Kamprath says. "That's part of the reason" harvest is lagging.

What is holding progress back?

Rainfall totaling about an inch midweek forced growers in Monroe County and surrounding areas to pause fieldwork, and wet soils have kept combines out of fields longer than producers would like. Kamprath's account — a grower starting soybean harvest on a Monday after a Thursday rain — illustrates how tightly weather windows are compressing the schedule across southeastern Michigan.

The delay matters beyond the calendar. Harvest progress that trails the five-year average typically signals later corn and soybean removal, heavier drying costs for wetter grain, and added pressure on growers balancing trucking, storage, and basis levels at elevators already managing a staggered intake.

Why does the five-year benchmark matter?

Comparisons against both last year and the five-year average are the standard yardsticks for gauging harvest momentum. When current progress sits behind both measures, as Michigan's does now, it indicates the lag is not simply a reflection of one unusual prior season but a broader slowdown in this year's crop removal.

For a Monroe County operation like Kamprath's — a corn, soybean, and wheat rotation just north of the Ohio line — a late soybean start compresses the window for fall tillage and wheat establishment logistics already completed on ground following earlier-harvested crops.

What comes next?

Field conditions that are "not bad yet," as Kamprath puts it, leave room for progress if drier weather holds, but another substantial rain could push corn and remaining soybean acres further behind the state's already delayed pace.