Written by Jonathan Eisenthal

With USDA’s prospective plantings report due to be released at 11 a.m. Central today, Minnesota Cornerstone visited with some Minnesota corn farmers to get their planting outlook and thoughts on the upcoming season.

Farmers across Minnesota still see a strong market for corn and plan to plant accordingly. The price situation and other factors have made soybeans more attractive for farmers who have been planting corn-on-corn over the last few seasons. The weather looks to be a wildcard, too — the later the start, the more acres farmers will devote to beans, which can reach maturity despite a short growing season.

Outlook in Northwestern Minnesota

Northwest Minnesota is an area where corn has made major inroads, thanks in large part to dedicated research into varieties suited for the northern tier, says Gary Purath, a farmer in Red Lake Falls.

“Last year, there was a significant jump in the number of corn acres in the Red River Valley, but this year we will probably see a little decrease,” said Purath. who plans to go with his standard rotation, about a third each into corn, soybeans and spring wheat, though beans may win slightly more acres than the other two this year.

Ten major crops in the Red River Valley mean lots of different rotation options. “It depends entirely on how late it gets in the spring before we can get out to plant. With all the cropping options out there, there’s a lot of indecision yet, Purath said.”

Gary Purath

Last year in Purath’s area, about 100 miles south of the Canadian border, they didn’t record a 40-degree day until April 24.

“We are in a higher risk for crops, due to weather, and because of the shorter season,” Purath said. “But there have been tremendous improvements genetically through research by folks like Jeff Coulter at the University of Minnesota into the 75 to 80-day maturity varieties we need. And we’re also seeing yield improvements due to management improvements.”

Though farmers in the northwest corner seldom reach 200-bushel yields, they have produced solid 150 to 160 bushel average yields, making corn a very valuable crop in the area.

“We’re not new to corn, but we have been raising more corn in the last few years and we are getting more serious about it,” Purath said. “Beans are grown as far north as Manitoba and there’s lots of beans and corn in the Red River Valley. Two of the four leading soybean production counties are up here in the northwest corner: Kittson and Marshall.”

West Central Minnesota perspective

Head due south to Renville County, and here, too, farmers plan to go with lots of corn acres.

“We’re going with about half corn, half soybeans and we’re not planning to change anything,” said Myron “Mickey” Peterson, who farms in Sacred Heart. “It depends on how late the season does get to be. Right now we don’t have a lot of snow, but we have frost, and it looks like we’ve got a lot of cool weather ahead. I don’t anticipate we will be getting out before April 25, unless it warms up. At Commodity Classic, a meteorologist spoke and said, as of late February, it looked like six to eight weeks more of cold weather, and that puts us into mid- or late April before it warms up to normal temperatures.”

Peterson, who sells seeds for Monsanto, hosts a Monsanto plot on the farm operation he works with his brothers.

Mickey Peterson

“We generally have a plot of our own, so we can look at what comes up there. I like to get a good overall picture, more than one year’s planting, before I would plant (a new variety). Sometimes the new varieties outshine the old ones, so we might include them in the rotation more quickly than we would otherwise. We like having our own plot — it seems more relevant than yields from land that’s 30 or 40 miles away”

Their plot compares some of the new hybrids with others that have been out for a couple of years. Monsanto uses the data for its research, but also makes the information available electronically.

What about Central Minnesota?

In Central Minnesota, where farmers were particularly hard hit by a sudden drop in the availability of propane last fall and into this winter, the propane supply could factor in farmers’ planting decisions, according to Tom Haag, who farms in Eden Valley, near St. Cloud.

“The propane shortage is another reason people are thinking of growing a little more soybeans than they normally do, because it’s a question mark,” Haag said. “What’s that price of propane going to be at (next fall), and is there going to be a good enough supply, so that when we start to dry, we don’t have to shut down.”

He noted that beans normally don’t require drying.

“You need beans to be at 13 percent moisture when you sell them, so you don’t get docked,” Haag said. “But you could have 15 percent moisture in the morning and you have a sunny warm day and it’s windy out, it can dry the beans down 2-3 points in one day. That same day, the corn you might take a point off — it’s a slower process. I’ve been farming more than 40 years and we have had to dry beans with propane maybe twice.”

Pricing has made beans more attractive than they were, Haag noted.

Tom Haag

“Last year we were heavier into corn,” said Haag, former president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA). “We were at about 75 percent corn, to 25 percent beans. This year we are closer to a 60/40 split. On our ground we can consistently grow a respectable crop of corn. And with the price for corn being better than other crops in the past few years, we could make more per acre with corn. With beans we have had trouble getting the better yields and matching the revenue-per-acre compared to corn. Now with corn being around $4.25, and soybeans being a little bit more attractive, you are seeing more guys switching to something closer to the 50/50 or 60/40 split in our area.”

Haag said he makes use of the MCGA-sponsored variety plots for Stearns and Meeker counties, and also consults with his seed dealer when making his selections for the coming year.

“We’re growing the same numbers we grew last year,” Haag said. “In all the variety plots in Meeker and Stearns Counties those varieties did well and overall, it’s still recommended. This hybrid is stacked and has ‘refuge in a bag,’ which combines a certain percentage of conventional seed right in there, so we don’t have to worry about setting aside a certain number of rows and planting them separately.”

Asked to forecast when farmers in Central Minnesota might start planting, Haag said it looks like it will be later than usual, but it’s hard to predict.

“The latest we’ve started corn? One year we didn’t start until the middle of May,” Haag said. “Normally we try to get going around April 20-22. There’s a saying from the old farmers that my grandpa talked about and my dad talked about: when you have a late Easter like we do this year, Mother Nature does not turn around until after Easter.”

Asked about moisture, Haag said there’s enough for now.

“With the snow that melted in, and the rains we got last fall, we’ve got enough moisture to get the crop going, but we still do not have enough soil moisture to carry us very far into the summer. We’re going to need some timely rains again,” Haag said.