For farmers in the Upper Midwest, the best way to ensure a successful growing season is to start with a strong foundation. Though many factors are beyond growers’ control, in South Dakota, Northern Soy Marketing Vice Chair David Struck is pleased with cards they have been dealt so far this growing season.
“It’s been a pretty early spring and there’s a lot of planting that’s been done,” Struck said. “We’re mostly just trying to wrap stuff up. We’ve had some rain now, so we’ll probably be delayed for a week. But it won’t take us very long to finish up.”
In Minnesota, NSM Director Patrick O’Leary wrapped up planting on May 9 and is diving headfirst into spraying.
“The planting season went pretty well,” said O’Leary, who farms near Benson, Minn. “We’ve had a few hiccups since then, but nothing that has been a huge surprise, just some of the conditions that we’re dealing with.”
Every year, Mother Nature is farmers’ biggest contender. As the author Amor Towles wrote, farming is, “a way of life in which the difference between abundance and ruin could be measured by a few inches of rain or a few nights of frost.” And this year is proving to be no different. Between strong winds, rain and freezing temperatures, farmers across the Upper Midwest are juggling whatever may come their way.
“The crop has been pretty stressed since it came out of the ground,” O’Leary said. “We had one field that we had to replant because after we planted there was a combination of cold and wind, and the wind was really hard on it. And we did get enough rain last week that drowned out a very, very small amount of crop – we got close to four inches in places. So hopefully in the next few days we’re going to pick up some heat and sun.”
Struck has faced the same weather challenges.
“We’ve had a lot of wind this spring,” said Struck, who farms near Wolsey, S.D. “We’ve had big winds that have been 40-50 miles per hour at times. That’s been a challenge for us. Spraying is probably the biggest challenge because the wind just blows all the time. We only get a few hours of spraying here and there but keeping the sprayer going all day long has been a challenge.”
Though rain delayed the planting season, it was needed.
“The moisture is welcome,” O’Leary said.
Struck reiterated the sentiment.
“Oh, we needed it bad,” Struck said.
Despite the obstacles that growers may face, they remain optimistic.
“Unless it keeps raining, I think we’ll be okay,” Struck said. “We were ungodly dry. Our biggest challenge was getting the seeds into moisture. But now that’s not going to be a problem and for the fields that we do have planted, it’ll sprout no problem now that we’ve had rain.”
Across the nation, 76 percent of the soybean acreage was planted by May 25, which is 10 percentage points ahead of last year and eight points ahead of the five-year average, according to the USDA’s Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin. Additionally, 50 percent of the nation’s soybean acreage had emerged by May 25, 13 percentage points ahead of last year and 10 points ahead of average.
