While the lack of rain took a toll on the yield of this year's crop... the harvest was unprecedented in terms of speed.
Back in March Pat Duncanson had an early start and thought there was great potential with his crop because of the ideal conditions.
That changed once Mother Nature decided to hold off on rain.
Duncanson says, "We ran out of the moisture that we needed at one time it looked like a disaster, we just didn't know."
Duncanson added this was his first time ever harvesting corn before soybeans.
Technical Services Manager at Pioneer says, Chad Berghoefer, "Because of the heat we had this summer corn matured a lot quicker than normal."
Officials from Pioneer say although this year's crop dwindled a bit what helped them was the amount of sunlight, a key to crop production.
Across most of the U.S. there are below average yield level. Minnesota stayed close to average for a couple different reasons.
Berghoefer says, "The soil that we have in this region do a really good job of holding moisture in the ground and sub soil moisture came in a big play for us when we really were dry out there."
Right now farmers are hoping for much needed rain to recharge the soil because moisture levels are really low.
Rain or even snow that will help for next year's crop as harvest wraps up for many farmers right now.
Duncanson says, "We ended with a very good crop considering how dry it was during the year but certainly well short of the potential that we had in April and May."
