It isn’t often you see a farmer combining corn in May. Jim Overby combined this field north of Mooreton Tuesday, May 12. Moisture content of the corn was about 13 percent with 54 pounds test weight. A wet fall meant Overby couldn’t combine this field last year. He says he wants to finish the field, work it and then plant soybeans. Tuesday evening, two separate combines were harvesting last year’s corn within two miles of each other.
This year’s late spring planting is what area farmers had expected — not what they had hoped.
Spring wheat planting in North Dakota for example, was 27% complete as of Monday, May 10. That is 3% behind last year and well behind the average of 56%, according to National Agricultural Statistics Service-North Dakota.
A cold April and early May resulted in soil temperatures in the high 30s and lower 40s, which means that crops will take longer to germinate, even if they are planted. Plus, there has been little drying in the fields, resulting in difficult conditions once again to put in this year’s crop.
North Dakota has just 4% of its soybean crop planted by May 10, down from the five-year average of 17% for that date. South Dakota has 23% in the ground, while Minnesota has 57%.
Wet conditions in much of the Red River Valley continues to hamper sugar beet planting. In Minnesota, 53% of the crop was planted, down from the five-year average of 78% for that date. In North Dakota, 35% of the crop was in the ground, less than half of the five-year average of 82% for that date.
With corn, North Dakota has 7% of this crop planted on May 10, down from the five-year average of 38% for that date. Minnesota has 80% of its corn in the ground on May 10, compared with the five-year average of 57% for that date. South Dakota has 51% of its corn planted, compared with the five-year average of 38% for that date.
RSS Feed
