A good rain wouldn’t hurt
By Robert Wolfington IIICorn and soybeans in Minnesota are behind the five-year average but good weather in recent weeks has shown improved growth in crops, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said this week.
Corn is 10 inches shorter and soybeans are three inches shorter than the five-year average in Minnesota, the USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service said in its weekly report this week.
Warmer temperatures and well-timed rainfall across the state is credited for good development the last week, the USDA said, but area farmers are still looking for a good rainfall.
Bob Worth, a corn and soybean farmer in the Lake Benton area said a well timed rainfall in the next few days would be beneficial to area crops.
"We could just use a good rain," Worth said. "We're not suffering yet, but we would always like to see good rain while the reproduction cycle is going on with corn and soybeans. We could use another inch of rain, and that could be a million-dollar rain."
Worth said corn in the southern Lincoln County area is about 10 days behind what he would like to see.
"We're doing pretty good; our crops are behind probably 10 days," said Worth. "We had a nice rain last week with a little over an inch in two rains. We could always use more rain; I could use another quarter of an inch."
Worth said he is concerned an early frost could catch up to crops if more progress isn't made.
"It can be a big deal if an early frost comes," said Worth. "If Mother Nature treats us well we'll be fine, but if an early frost comes or we have a really cold August-September we could be hurting."
Doug Albin, a grower in the Clarkfield area and vice president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, said the Yellow Medicine County area could use a good rain shower sooner rather than later.
"Yellow Medicine County definitely needs a shot of rain," said Albin. "We could use an inch and a half to two inches pretty quick."
Albin said temperatures haven't risen too high for crops to go without moisture, but rain would be a welcome change.
"The last rain that we got kind of saved us," said Albin. "Things were looking pretty bad with the heat ,and crops were suffering pretty hard."
Corn tassels have begun to show throughout fields around the region, Worth said.
"Corn has just started to tassel," said Worth. "Soybeans are looking good, but the aphids are out there. The beans still look really good."
Aphids have been a problem for some fields, but Worth said it has been relatively localized in areas.
"They are localized - they aren't in the super high category yet - but there are areas where they are spraying with their second pass of Round-Up," said Worth.
Heavy winds and rain recently hit the northern Yellow Medicine County area and other areas as well. Albin said he likely lost a few acres of wheat because to those conditions.
"With the wind and the rain it actually flattened some of the wheat," said Albin. "I don't think that is going to be coming back. It just happened to catch it in the wrong stage of growth."
