By DOUG SCHMITZ
Iowa Correspondent

DES MOINES, Iowa — The combines of thousands of Iowa farmers ground to a halt once again when another cold snap – this time bringing heavy rains and unseasonably light snow – prevented them from wrapping up this fall’s harvest.

“Farmers were able to get in the field over the weekend and some harvesting is getting done,” said Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey, a fourth-generation farmer who grows corn and soybeans in northern Iowa. “We are having one of the most challenging harvests in decades.”

As of last week, only 8 percent of Iowa’s soybeans and 4 percent of the corn were harvested. Much of that work was done Oct. 18, when warmer temperatures and dry breezes reached most of the state, according to the USDA’s Iowa Crops and Weather Report released on Oct. 19.

The report said there were only two days suitable for fieldwork...