As fall quickly approaches, Stateline farmers will soon take to their fields to harvest the fruits of their labor.

But spring showers pushed schedules back for many and the wet soil led some to switch which crops were planted in certain fields.

“I know several people, and I’m one of them, that that’s what we did,” said Stephenson County Farm Bureau board president and farmer Steve Fricke. “So we could get all the corn that we were planning on planted by the last date for [crop insurance] coverage and then go with the beans after that.”

Stephenson County farmer Tom Scheider was able to plant most of his corn in April, but didn’t expect the snowfall that followed.

“It got snowed on, it took quite a long time to come up,” said Scheider. “But it looks pretty good right now. The soybeans were all planted in June and I think they have less pods than normal.”

Fricke says his corn crop has been hit hard. Patches of fields remain empty without any corn due to wetness earlier this summer. Some corn that was planted suffered because of bad soil conditions.

Because Scheider’s land is next to the Pecatonica River, 40 acres of his land were never planted.

“The Pecatonica River came up on Labor Day a year ago,” said Scheider. “It was high all the time until July of this summer. For most of the year, it’s been high.”

Typically, Fricke says crops are harvested in late September to mid October, and he’s ideally done by Halloween.

“We’re not too disappointed if we’re totally done by Thanksgiving but that’s on a normal year,” said Fricke. “This year, [it’ll be] three more weeks from what we normally see, at least.”

Farmers say facing challenges is the name of the game but they all do their best to stay optimistic.

“I always joke that it’s maybe like the Cubs,” said Fricke. “We’ll have a better year next year.”