Written by Jonathan Eisenthal

It’s not just the wetter season, but the way rains have come so frequently and in heavy bouts, that has left many Minnesota farmers facing a steep challenge to get their corn crop planted this spring.

As of Sunday, 82% of Minnesota’s corn crop had been planted, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. For comparison, from 2017-21, the average date on which the 82% threshold was reached was May 19. Typically, over that five-year stretch, corn had reach 92% planted by May 29. Last year, Minnesota corn acres were 99% planted by the 29th.

“We had had a wet fall last year, and then we got a lot of rain this spring,” Lake Wilson farmer and Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA) President Bryan Biegler said. “We had that one night when we got 3.5 inches of rain in about an hour or two. That was the rain that brought a lot of wind damage in our area. The storm went south of us and east of us and then dropped off quite a bit. As you go north from here, they got even more rainfall — 4 to 6 inches.”

[More: Cool spring may mean late planting season]

Typically, the Bieglers like to start planting corn between April 25 and May 1 and finish planting by the end of the first week of May. This year, they didn’t start planting corn until May 10. After two days of planting, more rain arrived, forcing them to wait another two weeks before getting into the fields again. Another day of planting was followed by more rain.

A three-day stretch of field work last week allowed the Bieglers to finish planting corn, but rain over the weekend has meant they haven’t yet started on soybeans.

“We’re not going to get optimal yields, planting this late, but there is still a chance to get a decent crop out of it this year,” Biegler said.

Progress stalled in northern MN

Looking north, too much wet has brought much of the field work to a total halt.

“We have about two-thirds of the corn we planned on planting in the ground, and some of it is coming up now,” said Mahnomen farmer and Minnesota Corn Research & Promotion Council Member Dave Vipond. “We just got a couple inches of rain, so we are not going to be planting any more corn. … Below normal temperatures and above normal precipitation, make it look like it’s just not conducive to planting late corn.”

If the rain tapers, those untiled fields may work for other crops, but otherwise, he will have them declared “prevented plant” acres.

“Since we harvested last fall, we have gotten 16 inches of rain, and that doesn’t account for the snowmelt,” Vipond said. “We have an excess of moisture. It’s even worse when you go north. I think we are 65%-70% planted around here, but if you go further north, they aren’t 10% done.”

As you head south and east, farmers seem to have had a little more luck with soils drying earlier, though periodic rain events seem to have slowed planting across the whole state. St. James farmer and MCGA board member Harold Wolle, Jr. said they were able to finish planting on May 24. MCGA board member and Cannon Falls farmer Rob Tate finished planting corn on May 19 and soybeans on May 24.

“Planting conditions were moderate,” Wolle said. “You always want soil conditions to be perfect when you plant, but generally, you start before they are perfect, then you hit a period when they are pretty good, and, sometimes, it gets too dry by the end.”

[More: Read the May edition of Corn Talk]

The Wolles never got to the point where the soil was too dry this year.

They got started with planting late — the first week of May — and then rain came along just frequently enough to make it a stop-and-start affair, with three separate day-and-a-half planting windows spread over the middle weeks of May. Finally, the longest stretch of dry weather gave them four straight days to finish up.

Tate also said that soil conditions never got to be ideal on his fields.

“The soil got close to being fit,” Tate said. “As close as it was going to get, and you knew you were going to get rain again shortly, so you went ahead and planted it. It wasn’t ideal, it was just tacky. You don’t like to plant into overly wet conditions because the soil can get packed, and cause compaction issues.”

Compaction can cause uneven emergence and yield loss. Tate reported an additional challenge that came after a heavy rain left some soils with a hard crust.

“I know there were a lot of rotary hoes running in our neighborhood,” Tate said.

Because of the late planting window, Tate decided to change some of his corn to earlier-maturing varieties.

“I had 106-day corn that I rolled down to a 99-day variety, but I still planted a fourth or more of my acres to a 104-day maturity hybrid,” Tate said.

As of Friday, Tate estimated that perhaps 5% to 10% of corn acres and up to 20% of soybean acres were still unplanted in his area, in southeastern Minnesota.

He and the rest of the farmers interviewed for this piece said growers across the country will continue to work hard to meet the worldwide demand for grain.

“American farmers are going to do their best to get the crop planted and get a good crop produced, so we can meet that demand,” Wolle said.