Weekend frost hits Minnesota's corn crop

Farmers were hoping it would hold off for at least a few more weeks, but frost rolled into Minnesota over the weekend and will likely have a negative impact on a corn crop planted late because of excessive spring rains.

Portions of 27 counties in Minnesota dipped to 32 degrees or lower this weekend according to the newest freeze map from the Midwestern Regional Climate Center.

Karl Duncanson, a corn and soybean farmer near Mapleton in Blue Earth county, knew his farm didn’t escape the freeze when his pickup windows were frosted over Saturday morning.

“It wasn’t white frost, it was ice,” Duncanson said. “It actually did more visual damage to the corn than I thought it would.”

Despite the yellowing leaves, Duncanson doesn’t think his corn will be hurt too bad by the freeze. His soybeans are a different story.

“We’re going to lose some beans,” he said. “Not sure how many, but we had to re-plant some around July 1 and those are going to be hit hardest.”

Further north near Eden Valley in Meeker County, Tom Haag is seeing some of the same things as Duncanson.

“It’s maybe too early to tell what the frost did to corn, but soybeans we’re going to lose some,” Haag said.

Late-stage frosts can negatively impact corn yields, which USDA projects to be about 171 bushels per acre for Minnesota this fall. Forecasters put Minnesota’s total corn harvest at 1.36 billion bushels. Many farmers think those projections are high, and this weekend’s freeze won’t alleviate that

skepticism.

“I think they’re optimistic,” Haag said. “You gotta have some pretty consistent corn to get yields that high and our fields are more uneven this year than they’ve been in other years.”

But like a lot of things in farming, we won’t know for sure until the combines start rolling.

“We have to wait and see. There’s still some time before harvest,” Duncanson said. “That’s the game we play.”