Sunday morning, a snowstorm blanketed Iowa State and central Iowa — splitting trees, downing power lines and slowing travel. However, to the relief of many area farmers, nature’s wrath came at the end of the harvesting season.

“The snow didn’t really impact the crops that much,” said John Creswell, ISU Extension Crop Specialist.

While some Iowa farmers still have crops in their fields, most soybean and corn producers in Creswell’s region, which includes Story, Marshall, Jasper, Dallas, Boone, Green, Guthrie and Polk counties, are done harvesting, he said.

“Most in central Iowa are done,” Creswell said. “I would say we’re 90-100 percent done.”

Creswell said he spoke with farmers in southern Jasper county who said 15-20 percent of the corn crop was still out, but these were the only reports of crop damage.

“[The snowfall] probably caused some loss,” Creswell said. “With the weight of the wet snow and wind, standability of corn isn’t real good.”

Mike Smith, a farmer in Steamboat Rock, said the three inches of snow Hardin County received will not severely impact area farmers because the harvest is almost over.

“In this area, everybody is just about done,” he said.

Smith said although he still has 30 acres of corn left to harvest, “it warmed up enough so the snow fell off the corn.” There was some stalk breakage, but overall Smith said he doesn’t expect a heavy loss.

However, Smith said other Iowa farmers did experience loss.

“Fellows down south were hurt more because they got more snow,” he said. Smith also said the snowfall was worse on soybean farmers than corn farmers.

Creswell said the snowfall affected most farmers because “they still have a lot of fall work to do.”

He said farmers still need to treat their fields with anhydrous ammonia, a fertilizer applied in either the fall or the spring. This treatment is “knifed in,” Creswell said, and requires dry soil conditions.

Creswell said despite the heavy snowfall, flooding should not be a problem for farmers. Because the ground has not frozen yet, the soil should absorb the run-off, he said.

“Flooding is definitely not a concern,” he said.

Creswell said dry weather in September and October helped the farmers with an early harvest.

“There was a good dry-down of the crops. Farmers didn’t have to use artificial heat,” he said. This dry weather sped up the harvesting process, which saved money and prevented further crop loss as a result of this storm, Creswell said.

Smith also said the warm weather helped the harvest.