Dry weather presents harvesting concerns

SIDNEY, Ill. (WCIA) – Some central Illinois farmers could start harvesting their crops as soon as next week. The dry weather could make it a dangerous job, however. One farmer is worried about the possibility of field fires.

“The whole idea of this time of year is for the crop to dry down, and that’s exactly what’s happening but it’s happening at a very rapid rate,” Dennis Riggs said.

Riggs has been around agriculture his whole life, but even he’s concerned what the lack of rain could mean for his fields.

“On the equipment now that has all these moving parts, something can happen very quickly that you actually don’t see,” Riggs said. “(That) can cause a fire to break out. You’re driving, you’re watching everything going on and that can happen in the back of the machine, and all of a sudden you have a field that’s on fire.”

Riggs said he knows of at least one farmer who plans to carry buckets of water on his truck while harvesting. In case the fire department can’t get there soon enough, at least he has something to try and put potential flames at bay.

Although Riggs has a small-scale farm, he said the harvesting process will take at least a month. He is hopeful that the area will get rain in the coming days or weeks to alleviate the increased risk for fires.

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