Frustrating spring for farmers in Northern Minnesota

By Aaron Vipond, MCGA Agvocate

You wake up in the morning, look at forecast, and think to yourself – rain again.

This seems to be the rule this spring for farmers in Northern Minnesota and not the exception. As many around the state have experienced it, it has been a very frustrating spring for planting, especially up here in Northern Minnesota. Mother nature just simply has not been cooperating this year, or at least until this past week.

Persistently wet conditions prevented many farmers from turning a wheel in the field as late as May 20. Farmers who did plant early have been forced to replant due to the unseasonably cold and wet weather we had in early May.

When the weather finally did break for a short period, farmers who were fearful that the rain would return found themselves going around the clock to get crops planted. In the short windows of time that Mother Nature did cooperate, it is estimated that just a little over half of the intended corn acres were planted before the final planting date of May 25 for the 18 Northern Minnesota counties.

This means many farmers lost 1 percent on their insurance coverage per-day planted later than the set date due to increased chance of loss. This being said, some farmers have switched their unplanted corn acres to soybeans, or they have chosen to prevent plant the acres. This choice has varied from farm to farm as every operation is different.

On my family’s farm located in Mahnomen, Minnesota we were lucky enough to get all of our intended corn planted before the final plant date, being we had reduced corn acres this year due to crop rotation changes moving back to our traditional corn and soybean rotation.

Even with the reduced acres, we worked around the clock to beat the rain and get the crop planted in timely manner. We were luckier then most farms in are area that were forced to prevent plant or switch to soybeans due to the wet conditions.

With the weather forecast taking a turn for the better this past week, many farmers have started planting soybeans. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the remainder of the summer will continue these favorable forecasts and that this unseasonably wet weather is behind us.

Aaron Vipond is a student Agvocate for the Minnesota Corn Growers Association and attends North Dakota State University.