Crop conditions across the Corn Belt vary widely.
Unfortunately, farmers across southern Minnesota are in an area that is doing far worse than most places.
“I’m glad I got my crop insurance coverage. I think a lot of farmers will be relying on that crop insurance this year,” said Paul Torkelson, a St. James area farmer and member of the Minnesota House of Representatives.
The problem has been too much rain — and several very heavy rains — through the spring and summer.
“The soybeans that aren’t drowned out are looking pretty good,” he said. “But the corn is very uneven. Very up and down.
Tom Hoverstad, a scientist at the University of Minnesota Southern Research and Outreach Center in Waseca, said the corn crop has not looked good all year.
“It tasseled uneven and it’s pollinating unevenly. There are spots in fields that drained well and the corn will be OK, but a lot of it is very uneven.”
Hoverstad said the saturated soils meant the corn didn’t take up the fertilizers that farmers applied, leading to the poorly growing corn crop.
He said there is a little more hope for a decent, but not great, soybean crop.
“For soybeans August is the big month. They have a longer period of flowering and reproduction, so if things go well this month, they have a little more resilience.”
Hoverstad said alfalfa has grown pretty well but the rain interfered.
“It’s been hard to make hay because of all the rain.”
This is also the time to harvest small grains, but he said farmers are waiting for the grains to dry down enough to harvest them.
Torkelson said lower crop prices are making things worse for farmers.
“The prices have been going down pretty steady, and I don’t think they’ll recover much this summer as harvest will be starting pretty soon.”
Hoverstad said the only good news is that the long-range forecasts are not calling for a wet, cold fall.
The latest USDA Crop Report shows there are excellent crop conditions in many portions of the Corn Belt and the Southern Plains states, with the potential for record corn and soybean yields. But in the Upper Midwest, farmers are suffering from the excessive rainfalls that hit in late June and early July.
The major corn-producing state with the lowest “good-to-excellent” rating for corn was Minnesota at 58%.
The report has the overall U.S. corn crop at 67% “good-to-excellent,” which compares to 55% a year ago at this time.
Only 10% of the corn crop was rated “poor-to-very poor,” with much of that being in the Upper Midwest.
The highest “good-to-excellent” corn rating in the primary corn-producing states was in Missouri at 78%. Some of the other higher crop ratings included “good-to-excellent” ratings of 77% in Iowa, 76% in Illinois and 74% in Nebraska.