The late harvest of 2009 continues to lag, the latest government figures show.

Farmers harvested 23 percent of the state's corn as of Sunday, up from 12 percent a week earlier, but still far behind the five-year average for this time of year of 83 percent.

Soybeans were 77 percent harvested, up from 56 percent a week earlier, but behind the five-year average of 98 percent.

The delays were brought on mostly by record rains in October.

It was the fifth-wettest October on record for the Twin Cities, with 5.57 inches of rain, according to state records. It was the second-wettest October on record in Rochester, and many places in the agricultural-rich region of southern Minnesota recorded monthly rain totals of 5 inches or more, beating the monthly average by more than 3 inches.

It's not yet known exactly what the wet weather and late harvest will mean for yields; this was predicted to be a year of record soybean harvests, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture last month forecasting 3.25 billion bushels, a 10 percent increase from last year.

The corn harvest was predicted last month at 13 billion bushels, up 8 percent from last year and just 0.2 percent shy of the 2007 record.

The state's corn and soybean forecasts called for 284 million bushels of soybeans and 1.2 billion bushels of corn.

MATT MCKinney