October 24, 2016
NASHVILLE, Tenn (RFD-TV) Many farmers are making rapid harvest progress in the Upper Midwest. Despite a rainy late growing season, the combines are rolling nearly round the clock, and many farmers are surprised by what they’re finding.
Soybean harvest is close to wrapped up across Minnesota and corn is near 50 percent complete. Producers are saying yields are surprisingly good after a year with too much rain and weed problems.
Doug Wenner farms near Mankato, Minnesota. He reports that, “Yields have been very good. We had our best yield ever last year and I think we’re going to be just as good – or maybe even a little better – this year. Moisture has been anywhere from 18 to 20 percent.”
When asked if he expected to finish with this kind of year, Wenner replied, “No! I thought it was a little bit too wet. I thought beans didn’t really like wet feet, and beans really surprised me more than the corn did. They were as good as last year.”
Kent Thiesse is an ag banker who was a county agent for many years. He’s also hearing of good yield reports across the state. His prediction is that, “It’s going to be very good. It’s probably going to be above average statewide. I don’t think we’ll achieve 2015 levels because statewide in Minnesota in 2015, we had generally excellent conditions across the entire state. This year we’ve got those kind of conditions in some areas of the state, but we also have some areas that didn’t get as favorable of conditions. I don’t think we’ll hit the kind of levels we did a year ago when we set yield records, but it will still probably be above average in both corn and soybeans in Minnesota.”
Better-than-expected yields seem to be the one common denominator heard from farmers in the region. Though the growing season might have been less than ideal, with good inputs – and better management – another record or near record crop may be on the way in Minnesota.