Summer heat has pushed Minnesota’s crops towards maturity and the first stage of fall harvest is not far off.
Farmers in Minnesota and the upper Midwest are looking forward to a good crop this season. There are parts of the state that still need rain, and other areas had scattered hail. Overall though, the crop looks pretty good.
Brian Weller, an agronomist that covers a large portion of Minnesota and South Dakota, has been has been watching the crop progress.
“We have been very fortunate. We’ve been able to get the crop in in pretty good order. Looking at it, looking around, we definitely have a very nice crop coming,” he said. “With that being said, you can tell the folks that maybe invested a little bit more, put on a little more nitrogen, side dressed, or if they saw the advantage of putting on a fungicide. They maybe saw a disease coming, they threw that on.”
He added that there have been some weed and insect problems, but not enough to be a major concern. The harvest is now right around the corner, corn for silage will be very soon and both corn and soybeans will not be far behind.
“I’ve seen a few early planted soybeans that I’m thinking September 10th-15th we might see some combines rolling on some early planted soybeans,” Weller said. “Corn, we might see some early planted cornfields that are starting to get down there in moisture and guys might take them.”
Weller expects some beef and dairy producers to begin taking silage in the next 7-10 days.