By Jonathan Eisenthal
After decent planting weather the week of April 13, corn growers in south central and southwest Minnesota slowed their planting roll over the weekend as temps dropped down to the 30s and 40s, and precipitation arrived. With sun and fair weather at the start of this week, growers are going full speed ahead to take advantage of a window of dry weather.
“We didn’t really pick up much precipitation over the last few days, so I think a lot of people are trying to get as much planted as they can in the next three days, especially because there’s talk of a little bit of rain on Thursday,” Jeff Coulter reported. Coulter is an Extension corn agronomist with the University of Minnesota. He manages corn plots at the Southern Research and Outreach Center in Waseca. He said, “The corn planted between now and Wednesday should do great. The stuff planted before this weekend is still probably going to do okay, but it got pretty cold overnight Saturday.”
Temps of 26 degrees Fahrenheit were reported in some places.
Scott Winslow, who farms in Fountain, Fillmore County, in southeast Minnesota reported that conditions have been too wet in his area to get started prior to this week. Winslow serves on the Minnesota Corn Research and Promotion Council.
He said getting started planting this week is possible in his area, even though rains had left fields not quite fit.
“There were some tornadoes about 20 miles from us (April 17), and some heavier rains and hail, but that missed us,” Winslow said. “Maybe (this) week we’ll get a couple of warm days. It wouldn’t take a lot for it to dry out.”
Click here to see more...